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84. Agriculture is the major occupation of people of the state. Apart from the food crops,jute is the main cash crop that used to support thriving jute mills till recently. The northernpart of the state is dotted with tea gardens that produce high quality Darjeeling tea. Thecoastal reaches and Sundarban are important fishing grounds. Service sector activities,including IT industry are rapidly growing in the state. Metallurgical and manufacturingindustries related to engineering products, electronics and electrical equipment, leather,textiles etc. are well developed in the state. Major industrial activities include coal mines inthe western part, integrated steel plant at Durgapur and petrochemical industry at Haldia port.Since the pronouncement of new industrial policy in early nineties and through recentinitiatives, major investments are expected in automobile, steel, petrochemical, shipbuilding/breaking and IT industry and in infrastructure sector inclusive of construction of adeep water port at Sagar. Sector wise contributions to the gross domestic product of the stateare 51% from service sector, 27% from agriculture and 22% from industries.5. Much of the vegetation of the western part of the state shares floristic similarities withthe plants of the Chota Nagpur plateau in the adjoining state of Jharkhand. The predominantcommercial tree species is Shorea robusta, commonly known as Sal. The coastal region ofPurba Medinipur exhibits coastal vegetation, the predominant tree is the Casuarina. On theeastern side of Bhagirathi-Hugli river in North and South 24 Parganas districts, the littoralmangrove forests of Sundarban, a Biosphere Reserve, are present. The most valuable treefrom the Sundarban is the ubiquitous sundari (Heritieria fomes) from which the forest gets itsname.B. Physiography of West Bengal6. Physiographically the state of West Bengal is quite unique and varied. In the far northis mountainous tract formed by Himalayan mountain chain. It can be divided into CentralHimalaya zone exceeding altitudes more than 3000m and consisting of ice capped peaksincluding the spectacular Kachanjangha, the third highest mountain peak of the world.Immediately south of this zone, the Lesser Himalayan zone stretches up to the foothills thatgive place to the Terai plain or Piedmont plain having a southward sloping altitude between150 to 100m. The coalescing alluvial fans of the Piedmont plain are bordered by theJalpaiguri plain on the south to be followed by the Kochbihar plain further south. The plainsare the result of fluvial action. The low lands in the western part of the Malda district and8