Nagercoil is a town in the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu and a municipality and administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District. Its name, meaning “Snake Temple,"comes from two words. (Nager=Snake, coil=Temple)[1] The town is situated close to the tip of the Indian peninsula, locked with the Western Ghats on all sides. The town was a part of the erstwhile Travancore state, or later Travancore-Cochin state, till almost a decade after the Indian independence in 1947. It is the best-managed municipality in the state with a functinal e-governance system and the best city planned and citizen oriented corporarion in the state, given its large population of Non-Resident Indians.[2] In 1956, the city and the District were merged with Tamil Nadu. In its earlier days, the town and its surroundings were known as Nanjilnadu. It also serves as the Headquarters for Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre,[3] an Space research arm of The Government of India. The public sector Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) also has its largest facility at Manavaalakurichy, near the town, which pioneers in the mining, processing and production of Thorium.[4] As of 2011, the town had a population of 224,849.
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Demographics
Nagercoil has an average literacy rate of 100%.[5] According to 2011 census, Nagercoil had a population of 224,849 with a sex-ratio of 1,045 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929.[6][7] A total of 20,241 were under the age of six, constituting 10,119 males and 10,122 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 4.19% and .17% of the population respectively. The average literacy of the city was 86.44%, compared to the national average of 72.99%.[7] The city had a total of 59997 households. There were a total of 76,345 workers, comprising 244 cultivators, 1,155 main agricultural labourers, 2,271 in house hold industries, 67,050 other workers, 5,625 marginal workers, 110 marginal cultivators, 361 marginal agricultural labourers, 447 marginal workers in household industries and 4,707 other marginal workers.[8]
Tamil is the most spoken language. English is also widely understood and spoken in the city.There is also a substantial malayalee population in the town and Malayalam and Tamil are understood by all irrespective of whether their mother tongue is Tamil or Malayalam.As the district was part of Travancore,the district has large number of malayali population.The Tamil dialect spoken here here is Kumari tamil which is a mixture of Tamil and Malayalam.
The largest concentration of the population of the town and the District is along the coastal belt, on the eastern side, while the largely forested areas on the western side of the district (along the Western Ghats) are sparsely populated.
Economy
The Indian Space Research Organisation- ISRO has its Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre facility in the Mahendragiri hills (on the Western Ghats) off Nagercoil.[9][10]
Fish-net manufacturing is a growing business in and around the town; nets for commercial fishing are supplied to the domestic and export markets.[11] Cottage industries include coir-making, floral trade, handloom-weaving, rubber products, food-processing units, and lace-making (export-oriented).[12]
Being the major Tamil Nadu town closest to the Kerala capital, Thiruvananthapuram (65 km away and the closest international airport to Nagercoil), trading and sending supplies to Kerala and Thiruvananthapuram is a major activity for the bustling markets at Vadasery and Kottar - availability and many items being cheaper in Tamil Nadu than in Kerala adds to the thriving business Supply of marine and agricultural produce to the overseas export-markets are also important economic activities, though primarily done through exporters or agents in Kerala. Remittances to Nagercoil from overseas, from Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) hailing from the town, is a major contributor to the local economy.
Geography
The maximum temperature during the summer hovers around 100 °F or 34 °C with moderate humidity at times. Nagercoil is the only Indian Town to receive both the north-east monsoon and the south-west monsoon. It rains more often in Kanyakumari district than in any other part of Tamil Nadu, with the exception of the Nilgiris. Due to geographical conditions, the southern tip of Kanyakumari is generally 3 °C to 4 °C hotter than Nagercoil during the daytime, though Kanyakumari is only 20 km away.
Sports
Nagercoil is having the distinction of housing one of the two Sports Authority of India Centers in the state, the other being in Chennai.[14][15] There are plans to make the city hub for sports in South india by merging the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Center with Headquarters in Nagercoil.[16]
Politics
Marshal Nesamony, one of the leading lawyers of the Nagercoil Bar, was elected as the Chairman of the Nagercoil Municipal Council in 1943. He enlarged the town boundary, improved water supply system for the town, established a home for the destitutes and increased the income of the Nagercoil Municipality. In the same year, he was elected to the Travancore State Assembly and was also nominated to the Senate of the then Travancore University (today's Kerala University).[17] Later on K. Kamaraj, the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, won from Kanyakumari constituency without even canvassing.[18] This happens to be the strongest support base for the Indian National Congress in South India and is Nicknamed "The Fort of Congress".[19][20][21] The Nagercoil (Lok Sabha constituency) is perhaps the only Constituency in Tamilnadu to not have elected an Dravidian parties in the states History.[22]
Education
Reproduced from Wikipedia
