West Champaran district is one of the districts of Bihar. The district headquarters are located at Bettiah. The district occupies an area of 5229 kmē and has a population of 3,043,044 (2001 census). West Champaran is a part of Tirhut Division.
Bettiah is 225 Kilometres north-west of Patna. It is located at 26.81?N Latitude and 84.50?E Longitude, 65 metres above Mean Sea Level. It is the birthplace of famous writer Gopal Singh Nepali. Mohandas Gandhi started the Satyagraha movement from Bettiah in 1919. The region surrounding Bettiah was being extensively used for Indigo plantation. Though Indigo cultivation yielded quick benefits to the British Colonizers, a few years of Indigo cultivation would render the subsoil entirely devoid of nutients thereby effectively ruining any further cultivation of any kind . In fact to this date, the adjoining regions which were being used for Indigo cultivation are barren & have only scrub vegetation in stark contrast to the lush greens typical of the highly fertile Indo-Gangetic Plains in which the West Champaran district lies.