Karur district

This article is about the district. For its eponymous headquarters, see Karur.
Karur District
கரூர் மாவட்டம்
Karuvur Mavattam
District

Part of the Amaravathy river basin near Karur

Location in Tamil Nadu, India
Coordinates: 10°57′28.8″N 78°4′48″E / 10.958000°N 78.08000°E / 10.958000; 78.08000Coordinates: 10°57′28.8″N 78°4′48″E / 10.958000°N 78.08000°E / 10.958000; 78.08000
Country  India
State Tamil Nadu
Municipal Corporations Karur
Municipality Kulitalai
Town Panchayats 10
Headquarters Karur
Taluka6 Aravakurichi, Karur, Kadavur, Krishnarayapuram, Kulithalai, Manmangalam
Government
 • Collector S.Jayandhi IAS
 • SP Ms.Vandita Pandey, IPS
Area
 • Total 2,856 km2 (1,103 sq mi)
Population (2011)
 • Total 1,076,588
 • Density 373/km2 (970/sq mi)
Languages
 • Official Tamil
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 639xxx, 621xxx
Telephone code +91(0)4324, +91(0)4323, +91(0)4320
Vehicle registration TN 47, TN 45N[1]
Largest city Karur
Sex ratio 1015 ♂/♀
Literacy 81.74%
Lok Sabha constituency 1 - Karur
Vidhan Sabha constituency 4
Climate Max 38c - Min 17c (Köppen)
Website karur.nic.in

Karur District is a district located along the Kaveri and Amaravathi rivers in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The main town in Karur District is the city of Karur, which is also the district headquarters. The district had a population of 1,064,493 with a sex-ratio of 1,015 females for every 1,000 males.

History

Karur is one of the oldest towns in Tamil Nadu and has played a very significant role in the history and culture of the Tamils. Its history dates back over 2000 years, and has been a flourishing trading center even in the early Sangam days. In the ancient and medieval times, the area was ruled by the Cheras, Gangas and Cholas. Karur was the capital of Cheras.The Pasupatheesvarar Temple sung by Thirugnana Sambhandar, in Karur was built by the Chola kings in the 7th century. Later the Nayakars followed by Tipu Sultan also ruled Karur. The British added Karur to their possessions after destroying the Karur Fort during their war against Tipu Sultan in 1783. There is a memorial at Rayanur near Karur for the warriors who lost their lives in the fight against the British in the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Thereafter Karur became part of British India and was first part of Coimbatore District and later Tiruchirappalli District.

Geography and climate

With headquarters at Karur, it is the centrally located district of Tamil Nadu. It is bounded by Namakkal district in the north, Dindigul district in the south, Tiruchirapalli district on the east and Erode & Tiruppur districts on the west. Karur is located at 10°57'° N 78°4'° E has an average elevation of 122 metres (400 feet). It is about 371 km (231 mi) south west of Chennai (Madras), the state capital of Tamil Nadu.

The highest temperature is obtained in early May to early June usually about 34 °C (93.2 °F), though it usually exceeds 38 °C (100.4 °F) for a few days most years. Average daily temperature in Karur during January is around 23 °C (73.4 °F), though the temperature rarely falls below 17 °C (62.6 °F). The average annual rainfall is about 775 mm (30.5 in). It gets most of its seasonal rainfall from the north-east monsoon winds, from late September to mid November.

Demographics

According to 2011 census, Karur district had a population of 1,076,588 with a sex-ratio of 1,015 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929.[2] A total of 102,731 were under the age of six, constituting 52,969 males and 49,762 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 20.8% and .05% of the population respectively. The average literacy of the district was 68.3%, compared to the national average of 72.99%.[2] The district had a total of 287,095 households. There were a total of 543,298 workers, comprising 83,800 cultivators, 182,639 main agricultural labourers, 10,162 in house hold industries, 231,906 other workers, 34,791 marginal workers, 2,072 marginal cultivators, 18,198 marginal agricultural labourers, 1,178 marginal workers in household industries and 13,343 other marginal workers.[3]

Administration and Politics

Karur district has 2 Municipalities, 10 Town Panchayats and 158 Village Panchayats and 203 Revenue Villages.

Karur District Panchayat samitis:

Karur District Subdivisions

Karur District has 4 Assembly constituencies namely,

Karur Parliamentary constitutes 6 Assembly constituencies,

Economy

Agriculture

Karur District is a part of cauvery delta region and utilization of land area in the district is up to 44.59%. 4.76% of the land area remains as other uncultivated land. 2.74% is forest area in Karur district. Black soil is the predominant soil type in this district accounting for 35.51% followed by laterite soil for 23.85%. The remaining 20.31% is sandy, coastal and alluvium soil. The main crops are paddy, banana, sugarcane, beetle leaf, grams & pulses, tapioca, kora grass, groundnuts, oilseeds, tropical vegetables, garland flowers, and medicinal herbs.

Home textiles

Karur is famous for its home textiles. Karur has a niche in five major product groups — bed linens, kitchen linens, toilet linens, table linens and wall hangings. Overall Karur generates around Rs.6000 crores in foreign exchange through direct and indirect exports. Allied industries like ginning and spinning mills, dyeing factories, weaving etc., employs around 450,000 people in and around Karur.

On the international textile map, Karur has become synonymous with hand loom made-ups first as Tirupur in the hosiery product. The weaving industry came to Karur from Kerala and has earned a reputation for its high quality hand-loom products today. Hand loom exports from Karur began on a modest scale with just 15 exporters in 1975 and today Karur has thousands of exporters and the products are supplied to world leading chain stores like Walmart, Target, IKEA, Åhléns etc.

Paper

TNPL is promoted by the Government of Tamil Nadu with loan assistance from the World Bank. Today TNPL is the largest producer of bagasse based paper in the world and the 2nd largest paper producer in Asia. TNPL produces 230,000 tons of Printing & writing paper and consumes 1 million tones of bagasse every year.providing more employment.

Bus body building

Karur is a renowned hub for bus building industry. It is notable of Karur that almost 95% of south Indian private bus bodies are being built here. The total business is estimated to be around Rs.2750 crore per Annum. There are more than 200 builders in the district and they are making more than 3500 buses per year, including government buses of some states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu etc.

Cement

Karur is also home to Chettinad Cements and TNPL Cements. Chettinad Cements has an installed production capacity of 600,000 tons per annum, with another 1.1 million tons expansion in the pipeline.

Sugar

EID Parry has a sugar factory unit at Pugalur and Pettavaithalai. Both separately has a capacity of 4000 TCD per year. It also has a 22 MW co-generation power plant, with TNPL.

Banking

The private scheduled banks Karur Vysya Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank have their headquarters in Karur.

Jewellery

Jewellery business is the most important business in Karur.

Nylon nets

HDPE filament and associated product manufacturing.

Gem stones

The Karur belt also produces some very good amethyst, cat's eyes, feldspar, moonstones, aquamarines, sapphires, jasper and beryl.

Tourism and places of interest

Picnic spots

Temples

Kalyana Pasupatheeswarar Temple
Sri Balasubramania swamy temple, Vennaimalai

Health

Health Karur district has 29 Primary Health Care centres, 168 health sub-centres and Government General Hospital in the city. In recent years, it has gained notoriety as one of the districts with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country. In response to the epidemic, a massive district-level communication campaign (DLCC) was launched in 2006 by the USAID-funded APAC-VHS project in the district. In 2007, the district received its own ART (Antiretroviral drug therapy) Centre, located at the Government General Hospital. Also in 2007, Karur was selected as an IMAI pilot district by the World Health Organization and Solidarity and Action against the HIV Infection in India, with support from the District Collectorate and Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society.

Transportation

Road

Karur is connected with the rest of India through all modern means of transportation. The International highway AH-43 pass away here.There are two national highways: NH-7 (North South Corridor Road (Kashmir to Kanyakumari)) Varanasi - Kanyakumari and NH-67 (Nagapattinam - Trichy - Karur - Coimbatore - Gudalur), which connect with other major towns such as Erode, Tiruppur, Pollachi, Namakkal, Dindigul, Theni, Palani, Karaikudi, Kumbakonam, and Pondicherry. There are new highway construction projects under work. There are busstands at Karur, Kulithalai, Musiri, Thogaimalai, Tharagampatti and Pallapatti from which there are numerous busses to other parts of the state and other states.

Train

Karur (Station Code - KRR) is connected to the Indian Railways network. Trains from Mysore to Tuticorin, Mangalore to Chennai, Coimbatore to Kumbakonam Janshatabdi Express and Mysore to Mayiladuthurai travel via Karur. Karur is connected to major towns like Coimbatore, Madurai, Chennai, Trichy, Salem, Erode, Bangalore and almost North India via rail network. Now salem to karur rail road come to effect so the travelling time from karur to other north Tamil Nadu is reduced.

Airport

The nearest airport is in Tiruchirappalli Airport (85 km), Coimbatore Airport (130 km) and Madurai (135).

Sea port

The nearest major sea port is at Thoothukudi (280 km), Chennai (372 km) and Cochin(344 km).

References

  1. ↑ www.tn.gov.in
  2. 1 2 "Census Info 2011 Final population totals". Office of The Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "Census Info 2011 Final population totals - Karur district". Office of The Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2014.

External links

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