About East Garo Hills

East Garo Hills is an administrative district in the state of Meghalaya in India. The district headquarters are located at Williamnagar. The district occupies an area of 2603 km² and has a population of 247,555 (as of 2001).

The East Garo Hills district was formed in 1976, after the erstwhile Garo Hills district of Meghalaya was re-organised with a view to bring the administration closer to the people.

The district headquarter-complex of the district, christened as Williamnagar after the name of Captain Williamson A. Sangma the founder Chief Minister of the State of Meghalaya. Williamnagar is located on the vast plainlands along the bank of the Simsang River, at Simsanggre. These plainlands are in a sense historical, as it was here that the Garos made their last major resistance to the British intrusion into Garo Hills during the year 1837. The legendary Garo leader Pa Togan Nengminja Sangma was felled by the British, in skirmish, at Chisobibra, quite close to Wiliamnagar, on 12th December 1837.

The district falls under the Tura Parliamentary Constituency which Purno Agitok Sangma has been representing at the Lok Sabha (the House of the People), the Lower House of the Indian Parliament since 1975. Purno Agitok Sangma has been a former Union Minister and has the distinction of being the only unanimously elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha (during the 11th Lok Sabha).