Disaster Management

Geographical Location of the District

The Nagapattinam district was carved out of the earlier composite Thanjavur district in 1991. Tamil is the main language spoken in the district. The marine or coastal land has plain lands except for a few sand dunes and tilts from coastline to the inland area. The Vedaranyam salt swamp, south of Nagapattinam town is the largest swamp in Tamilnadu, running 7-8 kms. wide and 48 kms. along the coast from Point Calimere. It is one of the richest regions of biodiversity in the country.

The Nagapattinam district lies on the east coast to the south of Cuddalore district and another part of the Nagapattinam district lies to the south of Karaikkal and Tiruvarur districts. Its northern boundary is about 75 Km southwards from the Head Quarters of the Cuddalore district. Thanjavur district and Tiruvarur district flank it on the west and on the south and east it is bordered by the Bay of Bengal. This District lies on the shores of the Bay of Bengal between Northern Latitude 10.7906° degrees and 79.8428° degrees Eastern Longitude. The general geological formation of the district is plain and coastal. The Cauvery and its offshoots are the principal rivers.

The marine land or coastal land has plain lands except for few sand dunes. However there is a general tilt from coastal line to inland area. The most important feature of the district is the Cauvery River spread over with its numerous branches.