Social,
Environmental & Economic Sustainability
Our analysis of the rank of the district
Backwardness : Does not figure in list of 447 backward
districts
Sex Ratio Rank :
549 (Rank one is least sex ratio - Cenus 2001)
HIV Category District :
D (HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2004 - 2006)
Disability : NA
Literacy Ratio : 40 (Census 2001)
Minority : Does not figure in MCD
Challenges of the district : Our research
with local communities
After Tsunami, people of Karaikal had to face lot
hardships. Still the series of problems are continuing. People are
still not ready to come to terms with the situation.
Government should make provisions for the upliftment of downtrodden.
The quality of education is unsatisfactory.
Women are not empowered.
Government should make the people aware about health, livelihood
and education.
Brief About Karaikal District
The Union Territory of Pondicherry constituted out of the four
erstwhile French establishments of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe
and Yanam. Karaikal region is embedded in the Nagappattinam and
Tiruvarur District of Tamil Nadu State.
Latitude : lies between 10o 49' and 11o 01' northern latitude
about 150 kms. Longitude : lies between 79o 43' and 79o52' eastern
longitude about 150 kms. Area : 161 sq. km. has a population of
1,70,640 as per the 2001 census.
Karaikal town about 16 km. north of Nagappattinam and 9 km.south
of Tarangambadi is the regional headquarters. Karaikal region
is made up of the Communes of Karaikal, Kottuchcheri, Nedungadu,
Tirunallar, Niravi and Tirumalarajanpattinam.
Name sake : Several explanations are offered for the name Karaikal.
There is no doubt that it is a combination of two words,'karai'
and 'kal'. Both 'karai' and 'kal' have several meanings, of which
the more plausible one being "a canan made of lime mixture".
According to Julien Vinson, the town is said to have been known
as Karagiri in Sanskrit. The Imperial Gazetteer gives to the name
of the town the meaning of a 'fish pass'.
This Karaikal area formed an integral part of the Pallava kingdom
in the eighth century(C 731-796). Poet Sekkizhar (992-1042) describes
the town as "vanga malik kadar karaikal", the 'Karaikal
of many vessels on the coast' in his Peria puranam. In that the
poet relates the life story of one Punithavathiar who abandoned
the pleasures of material life and devoted herself entirely to
a life of prayer and penance to signify her devotion to Lord Siva.
He called her 'Karaikal Ammayar', conveniently after the town
which must have been famous already.
TOPOGRAPHY
Forming part of the fertile Cauveri delta the region
is completely covered by the distributaries of Cauveri. Covered
completely by a thick mantle of alluvium of variable thickness,
the lie of the region is flat having a gentle slope towards the
Bay of Bengal in the east. It is limited on the north by the Nandalar
and on the south-east by the Vettar. The group of rocks known
as Cuddalore formations is met with in the area contiguous to
Karaikal region in Nagappattinam District.
RIVER SYSTEM and WATER RESOURCES
The main branches of Kaveri below Grand Anicut are
the Kodamurutti, Arasalar, Virasolanar and the Vikramanar. Although
Arasalar and its branches spread through Karaikal, the waters
of Kodamurutti and Virasolanar also meet the irrigation needs
of the region.
The Arasalar having a total run of 24 km. enters Karaikal region,
a little east of Akalanganni. It forms the natural
boundary line separating Niravi Commune from Tirunallar on the
north-west and Karaikal on the north-east.
The Nattar, branching off from Arasalar at Sakkottai in Thanjavur
District, runs a distance of 11.2 km. in a south-easterly direction
across Nedungadu and Kottuchcheri Communes before emptying itself
into the sea.
The Vanjiar fed by Arasalar, takes its course along the northern
boundary of Tirunallar Commune, drops on a south-easterly curve
towards Karaikal Commune and merges with the Arasalar, south-east
of Karaikal town after covering a distance of about 9 km.
The Nular, also fed by the Arasalar, runs a distance of 13.77
km. before it joins Vanjiar north-east of Karaikal town.
The Puravadaiyanar and the Tirumalarajanar are the branches of
Kodamurutti.
Puravadaiyanar runs through Tirumalarajanpattinam Commune for
a distance of 5.3 km. before it empties itself into the sea, south-east
of Melvanjiyur.
The flow of Tirumalarajanar which forms the natural boundary
line between Niravi and Tirumalarajanpattinam communes runs a
distance of 5.13 km. before it enters the sea, north of Pattanachcheri.
The Nandalar takes off from Virasolan and meanders across the
northern boundary of the region through Nedungadu and Kottuchcheri
Communes for a distance of about 15.15 km. before it finds its
outlet into the sea a little south of Tarangambadi.
Underground water resources
Karaikal region gets most of its water for irrigation
from Kaveri and as such ground water resources in the region have
not been fully developed. Here the water table lies at depths
of 3-4 metres below ground level and during summer declines to
6-7 metres below ground level. In a number of villages filter
point wells piercing sandy materials down to about five metres
and fitted with hand-pumps supply fairly good quality water. In
many
cases the quality of shallow ground water is rather poor. In the
past, several attempts were made to tap ground water by means
of deep tube-wells for drinking and agricultural purposes.
The region is occupied by alluvium consisting of sands and clays.
Data of bore-holes put down in the vicinity of Karaikal indicate
that the thickness of the alluvium is possibly of the order of
68 meters. The alluvium is underlain by the Karaikal beds of Pliocene
age consisting of sands, gravels and clay. Wells in and around
Karaikal range in depth from 3.5 to 10.7 meters, with the maximum
depth of water level in summer being of the order of six
meters.
Ground water in Karaikal is developed chiefly by means of dug
wells or filter-point wells piercing blown sands and alluvium.
A few bore-holes not exceeding 50 meters in depth drilled in the
vicinity of Karaikal were reported to have been abandoned on account
of the poor quality of water in the granular zones in the alluvium.
However the data of a deep bore-hole put down at Karaikal in 1884
indicated that confined aquifers overlain by a think bed of clay
could be expected to occur below a depth of 90 meters in and around
Karaikal which is expected to be a source of
potential water supply, if tapped by tube-wells.
To the south and west of Muppattankudi and towards Mathur further
west, sands are met with down to depths of 8 to 12 metres below
surface. Wells tapping these sand yield water in plenty. About
1.6 km. South-south-east of Nedungadu, in the western portion
of the region, confined aquifers have been tapped by a tube-well.
In a number of tube-well attempted down to depths of upto five
metres only brackish water is reported to have been met with.
A
tube-well down to a depth of 61.7 m. near Akalanganni is said
to yield brackish water.
Karaikal town gets its water by means of a battery of a shallow
interconnected open wells and an infiltration gallery in the bed
of Arasalar. A few villages between Akalanganni and Karaikal also
get their water supply from this source. The town faces difficult
water supply position during the months of April-June, when there
is no flow in the Arasalar. Owing to the limited extent and thickness
of sands in the bed of wells in Arasalar in the vicinity of the
well site, attempts to increase the number of wells in Arasalar
bed have been unsuccessful.
The Geological Survey of India, in a report(1965) had suggested
to probe the bed of Nandalar to find out areas where sands may
be sufficiently think, so that wells or infiltration gallery could
be constructed for augmenting water supply to Karaikal and other
villages. The report had also suggested the drilling of a few
exploratory bore-holes piercing the deeper aquifers in order formations
so as to tap, if possible, ground water of good chemical quality
by means of tube-wells in the north-western portion of Karaikal
region under proper technical supervision.
GEOLOGY
Karaikal is an important stratigraphic horizon which
indicated the prospects of 'oil shows'. This in turn attracted
the attention of the Geological Survey of India between 1959-61
and later on who carried out detailed studies for
determining the possibility of the occurrence of oil.
Geological formations
The Karaikal area is completely covered by a thick mantle of alluvium
and no exposures are met with anywhere.
The following is zhe geological succession of the formations
:
Recent and Sub-recent ... Blown sands, alluvium
Pliocene ... Karaikal beds
Mio-Pliocene ... Cuddalore formations
Mineral wealth
The following are the minerals met with in the region
:
Brick clays : Brick clays are won from banks of Arasalar about
1.6 km. almost south-west of Pudutturai over an area of 0.6 sq.
km. Clayey soils are also employed for making bricks near Mel_Kasakkudi,
Nedungadu, Ambagarattur and Vadamattam. Indicated reserves of
1.3 million tonnes have been computed, of which the
padugai lands along the Arasalar will account for 0.83 million
tonnes.
Kankar : About 0.4 km. in a northerly direction from Mel_Subbarayapuram
village, small amounts of pisolitic kankar are found. It is obtained
from a depth of about 1.2 km.
Sea Shells : Sea-shells collected from the coast are made use
of in making lime for local use. Lime kilns were observed to the
west of Karaikal town, near T.R.Pattinam and Akkaravattam.
Ilmenite and garnet sands : Ilmenite and garnet occur in varying
concentrations in the beach sands along the Karaikal coast over
a stretch of about 10 km. and varying in width from 20 to 100
m.
Oil : It may not be out of place to mention about the prospecting
for oil going on in the area, as a result of the
favourable structures and thick sediments deciphered first by
the geophysical division of the Geological Survey of India, and
later on by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission.
FLORA
Historical resume
The earliest writing on the Indian flora commenced
actually with Garcia da Orta. Between 1560 and 1610, he published
his works on the Indian plants, in Portuguese and Latin languages.
The first systematic work on the floral wealth of the western
regions appeared by the end of the XVII century (Rheede 1673-1703).
The flora of a region can be presented in different ways to suit
the professional botanists, the agronomists, the phytogeographers
or the uninitiated laymen. Among the several possibilities the
one which is found suitable for our purpose here is to group them
according to their natural habitat. The classification adoped
here is based on the ecology of the plants in each region of the
Territory.
CLIMATE
Karaikal, situated on the east coast of India, near
latitude 11oN in the deltaic region of the Kauveri, experiences
tropical maritime type of climate with small daily range of temperature
and moderate rainfall.
Rainfall : Karaikal has an annual average rainfall of about 126
cm. 68 percent of which occurs during October to December. The
amount of rainfall during the south-west monsoon period is small,
being less than 20 per cent of the annual. November is the rainiest
month, accounting for about a third of the annual total. The range
of variation of annual rainfall is wide. Variability of annual
rain fall is fairly large, so that significant variations in rain
fall from year to year may be expected. Drought conditions with
the annual rainfall of less than 75 per cent of the normal may
be expected once in three years on an average.
In a year there are on an average about 55 rainy days, ie. days
with rainfall of 2.5 mm. or more.
Temperature, humidity, cloudiness and surface winds : The level
of temperatures in Karaikal is about the same as in Pondicherry.
December and January are the coolest months with the maximum at
about 28o C and the minimum at about 23oC. Minimum temperature
as low as 16oC may sometimes be recorded. The diurnal ranges of
temperature are generally small throughout the year, being highest
(about 10oC) in May and June, and the least (about 5oC) during
November to February.
The level of humidity and the pattern of cloudiness and surface
winds are the same as in Pondicherry. Although slight variations
in the month wise occurrence of depressions and storms are noticeable,
thunder-storms generally occur during April to November, particularly
in April, September and October.
