Kushinagar, where the Narayani embankment gave way, is the place of the Buddha's Mahaparinirvana

Background

The district where the Narayani embankment gave way in the floods of late September is Kushinagar, in the Gorakhpur division of north-eastern Uttar Pradesh.
It was formerly known as Kushinara, the place where Gautam Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana, and remains a Buddhist pilgrimage centre.
The district headquarters is at Padrauna.
It covers 2,873.5 square kilometres and had a population of 3,560,830 at the 2011 Census, with a literacy rate of 67.66 per cent and a sex ratio of 955.
The district has six tehsils — Padrauna, Kushinagar, Hatta, Tamkihiraj, Khida and Kaptanganj — and 14 development blocks.
It contains 1,447 villages.
It sends one member to the Lok Sabha and has seven assembly constituencies.