Purba Medinipur district, or East Midnapore district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the southernmost district of Burdwan division – one of the three administrative divisions of West Bengal. The headquarter is located at Tamluk. It was formed on January 1, 2002 after the Partition of Midnapore into Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur which lies at the northern and western border of it. The state of Odisha is at the south-west border whereas the Bay of Bengal lies in the south; the Hooghly river and South 24 Parganas district to the east and Howrah district to the north-east.
Purba Medinipur is formed of the sub-divisions of Tamluk, Contai and Haldia of erstwhile Midnapore district. Another sub-division, Egra has been created out of the erstwhile Contai sub-division during the partition of Midnapore. In 2011, the state government has proposed to rename the district as Tamralipta district after the ancient port city of Tamralipta which used to lie near the modern district headquarter.
Purba Medinipur saw many political movements during the British Raj. A parallel government named the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar was formed during the Quit India Movement in Tamluk. In 2007, Purba Medinipur witnessed the Nandigram violence, an incident of police firing that killed 14 farmers
