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 The Union territory of Pondicherry encompasses an area of only 492 sq km with Pondicherry town and its villages covering 293
sq.km surrounded by the south Arcot District, Karaikal town and its villages
covering 160 sq.km surrounded by Tanjavur district, Mahe and its villages
covering 9 sq km surrounded by the Kerala state, and Yanam covering 30 sq.km
within the East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. While Pondicherry, the head quarters of the union territory,
lies 162 km south of Madras and 22 km north of Cuddalore, Karaikal is about 150
km south of Pondicherry and Yanam about 840 km north-east of Pondicherry on the
Andhra Coast. Mahe lies almost parallel to Pondicherry, 653 km away on the west
coast.
Despite
of the high degree of urbanisation, about 40% of the people depend on agriculture
for their livelihood. Beside rice and some other food crops, like ragi, bajra and pulses, a number of cash crops like sugarcane, cotton and
groundnuts are also produced in Pondicherry.
Milk production and distribution is
well organised and it is largely in the cooperative sector. A well established
modern dairy is one of the achievement s of Pondicherry.
Fishery
is an important occupation as the Union Territory has a total length of about 45
km of coastline. There are about 28 sea fishing villages in the union
territory. While those engaged purely in inland fishing number 17. The inland
fishery depends on lakes, ponds, tanks and river water.
Main item exported include rice,
fish, hides and skin etc.
There are 23 large and 79 medium
scale industries. There are also 5, 400 small scale industries. All these
generate employment opportunities to nearly 50,000 persons. |
