District Profile

Tiruvallur was originally known as Tiruvullur which specifies the sleeping position of the Holy Lord “Vishnu”, in the Veeraragava temple of Tiruvallur. Later people began to refer it by names such as Trivellore and Tiruvallur. Today Tiruvallur is well known, one of the reasons being the Veeraragava Temple. The new moon day is very auspicious day for the Lord and so for the people of the town.

The District of Tiruvallur has been carved out by bifurcating erstwhile Chengalpattu District (which was renamed as Chengalpattu-MGR/Kancheepuram at the time of 1991 Census). According to the said bifurcation Tiruvallur revenue division which included Tiruvallur, Tiruttani taluks and Uthukkottai and Pallipattu sub-taluks separated from Chengalpattu District along with Ponneri and Gummindipoondi taluks of Saidapet revenue division and formed this new District. At present this District is comprised of 8 taluks namely Gummindipoondi, Ponneri, Uthukkottai, Tiruvallur, Poonamallee, Tiruttani, Pallipattu and Avadi and three Revenue Divisions namely Ponneri, Tiruvallur and Tiruttani.

In the far past, this region was under a chain of regimes commencing from the Pallavas during the 7th century ending with the Nawab of Arcot during the early part of 19th century when it came under the British rule. In 1687, the Golkonda rulers were defeated and the region came under the Moghul emperors of Delhi. The towns and villages of this region were the scene of Carnatic wars. Battles are said to have been fought in this region during the struggle for supremacy between the English and French. The town of Pulicat was the earliest Dutch possession in India founded in 1609 which was ceded to the British in 1825. With this, the region came under the British rule which ended on the 15th August, 1947 with India becoming independent.

S. No	Farming system/enterprise
1.	Irrigated Rice-Rice-Rice Rice-Rice-Groundnut Pulses-Rice-Groundnut Sugarcane-Sugarcane (Ratoon)
2.	Rain fed Rice-Groundnut-Millets/Pulses Groundnut-Minor millets-Pulses

S. No	Agro-climatic Zone	Characteristics
1	North Eastern Zone	The district lies between 12º 10’ and 13º 15’ Northern latitudes and 79º 15’ and 80º 20’ Eastern longitudes. The average annual precipitation is 1104.4 mm with 52 per cent benefit from North-East monsoon and 41 per cent from South-West monsoon and the remaining 7 per cent from summer showers and winter rains respectively.  The mean maximum and minimum temperatures are 37.9oC and 18.5oC respectively. The area has semi-arid tropical climate.  The hot climate prevails during the month of March-April and the slightly cold climate from December to February, the rest of years belong to humid climate. Tanks are the most important source of irrigation in this zone closely followed by wells. . Due to tank and well irrigation, wetland and garden land cropping systems are in vogue though major area is under dry land agriculture. The underground water potential in this region is assessed to be good and this zone stands foremost in lift irrigation from wells with large number of agricultural pump-sets.
2	Hill Ecosystem	Shallow to moderately deep (with rock phases) red soils of eastern ghats, loamy to clayey with gravels, hot moist semi arid to dry semi arid transition (rainfall (750-1000 mm) with LGP 150-180+ days.
3	Plain Ecosystem	Moderately deep to deep, gravelly loam and gravelly clay red and lateritic soils of plains, moist semi arid ecosystem (rainfall 1000-1500 mm with LGP 180-210 days)
4	Coastal Ecosystem	Deep to moderately deep, sandy soils of narrow coastal plain and gravelly clay and gravelly loam soils of inland plain, hot moist semi arid to dry subhumid transitional ecosystem (rainfall 1000-1500 mm) with LGP 210+ days.

S. No	Soil type	Characteristics	Area in ha
1	Coastal Sandy	Deep to very deep solum, colour varies between dark yellowish brown to dark brown. Sandy textured, single grained; excessively drained soils. pH varies between 7.3 to 7.8.	8,346
2	Coastal Alluvium	Deep, light brownish gray to dark brownish gray coloured; sandy loam to sandy clay loam textured; pH varies from 8.0 to 8.3	8,702
3	River Alluvium	Deep solum, grayish brown to yellowish brown; sand to sandy loam textured; pH varies from 6.1 to 6.3 Deep solum, yellowish brown to dark yellowish brown; sandy clay to clay textured; pH varies from 7.9 to 8.3	15820
4	Red soil	Moderately deep, colour varies between dark brown to dark reddish brown; loamy sand to sandy clay loam textured; pH varies from 6.6 to 7.3	106799
5	Lateritic soil	Moderately deep, red coloured; sandy clay loam to clay textured; pH varies from 5.1 to 6.0 Moderately shallow, yellowish red coloured; sandy clay loam to sandy clay textured; pH varies from 5.5 to 5.7	15048
6	Miscellaneous land types	Hillocks  in  Tirutanni	8,649
7	Forest		19,736

S. No	Crop	Area (ha)	Production (Tonnes)	Productivity (kg /ha)
1	Paddy	102657	419227	4121
	Millets
2	Cumbu	710	1740	2450
3	Ragi	323	891	2760
4	Maize	14	112	8000
	Pulses
5	Redgram	184	166	900
6	Blackgram	1240	868	700
7	Green  Gram	9188	8270	900
	Oilseeds
8	Groundnut	7816	24230	3100
9	Gingelly	914	689	754
10	Castor	28	8	276
11	Sugarcane	7211	721100	100000
12	Banana	2026	99486	49104
13	Mango	9944	35348	3250
14	Guava	623	6793	10904
15	Brinjal	261	2790	10690
16	Bhendi	120	903	7525
17	Coconut	1387	6141636	44281
18	Cow pea	116	87	1500
19	Horse gram	17	13	1736

Month	Rainfall (cm)	Temperature 0 C		Relative Humidity (%)
		Maximum	Minimum
April ‘19	0.0	39.0	26.1	4.3
May’19	2.0	39.6	27.3	24.7
June’19	62.0	37.1	27.5	70.1
July’19	140.0	35.4	26.4	53.6
August’19	225.0	33.9	25.1	65.4
September’19	51.8	33.3	25.3	83.0
October’19	328.0	32.6	24.6	86.9

Category	Population	Production/day	Productivity
Cattle
Crossbred
Indigenous	2,37,868	97812	4lit/day/animal
Buffalo	56,397	36,746	6.5lit/day/animal
Sheep
Crossbred
Indigenous	74780	—	—
Goats	187984	—	—
Pigs
Crossbred
Indigenous	2418	—	—
Rabbits	2889	—	—
Poultry
Hens
Desi	180866	—	—
Improved	152000	—	—
Ducks	—	—	—
Turkey and others	—	—	—

Category	Area	Production	Productivity
Fish
Marine	25.73 sq.km	2995	—
Inland	14841 ha	4076	—
Prawn	—	—	—
Scampi	—	—	—
Shrimp	159.36 ha	—	—

Crop/Enterprise	Thrust area
Agricultural  Crops	Introduction and demonstration of new varieties and hybrids with major focus on paddy, pulses, oil seeds, fruit crops and vegetables.
Soil  Health	Introduction of suitable varieties for problem soils
Crop Diversity	Alternate crop strategies
Plant  Protection	Demonstration of Integrated Crop Management, INM, IPM and IDM for major crops
Animal  Husbandry	Promotion of animal and fisheries components for balanced diet in villages
IFS	Sustainable agriculture by Integrating Farming System though and goat, duck rearing, vermicompost and  fodder cultivation
Value  Addition	Entrepreneurial development through value addition, mushroom production and vermin composting