AIZAWL

          city, capital of Mizoram. It is situated on a ridge at an elevation of about 900 m and is the most populous town in the state. In the 1970s, Aizawl was the scene of an armed attack on the government treasury and other offices by members of the Mizo National Front. Aluminium utensils, handloom textiles, and furniture are manufactured in the town. A diesel-powered station generates electricity, and there is an airport nearby.

The surrounding region is a part of the Assam-Myanmar (Burma) geologic province, with north-south-aligned, steeply inclined hill ranges. The rapid Dhaleshwari (Tiwang), Tuivawl, and Sonai (Tuirail) rivers and their tributaries criss-cross the region. Timber and bamboo are collected from the dense hillside forests. The soil cover is generally thin except in the river valleys, where rice, corn (maize), beans, tobacco, cotton, pumpkins, oilseeds, and peanuts (groundnuts) are grown. Poultry raising, hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry supplement agriculture. Handloom weaving, making ironware, carpentry, basket weaving, and hat making are the main cottage industries. The Mizo hills tribes of the region are mostly immigrants from Myanmar, and most have become Christians. Population (2001) 228,280.