With this, the total number of villages under the council has now gone up to 2941 from the earlier 2682, while the area has now increased from 5371 square kilometres to 8300 sq kms.

The Assam Government has also extended the northern boundary of the council to the Indo-Bhutan international border as also to the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh inter-state boundary, following consent of the Centre to include the ten km belt adjacent to Bhutan border.

Interestingly, the Manas National Park, having a core area of 391 sq kms, has been left out of the newly notified area of the BAC.

The State Government, in a press note issued here today, also stated that with the new notification, the Bodo population of Assam, that constitutes about 4.20 per cent of the State' stotal population, will get an area of about 10.5 per cent of the State. On the other hand, the total population of the newly-demarcated area is about eleven per cent of Assam's total, taking into account both Bodos and non-Bodos, the statement said.

More interestingly, while the Bodos have been demanding division of Assam on a fifty-fifty basis, the Assam Government has said that of the 2941 villages included in the council area, only 1199 had more than fifty per cent Bodo population.

``This shows that a sincere effort has been made to accommodate the demands of the Bodo groups to the best possible extent,'' the official press note said.

The press note also stated that the State Government would soon begin the delimitation process of the 40 constituencies of the BAC general council, following which election to the council would be held probably by the end of September.