Thiruvananthapuram Physiography

Thiruvananthapuram Physiography

Location

Thiruvananthapuram , the southern most district of Kerala state is situated between north latitudes 8º 17' and 8º 54' and east longitudes 76º 41' and 77º 17'. The southern most extremity, 'Parasala' is 56 kms away from Kanyakumari, the "land's end of India". The district stretches along the shores of the Arabian sea for a distance of 78 kms.

Kollam district is on the north and Thirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts of Tamilnadu are on the east and south respectively. The district can be divided into three geographical regions - highlands, midlands and lowlands.

Chirayinkeezhu and Thiruvananthapuram taluks lie in the midland and lowland regions while Nedumangad lies in the midland and highland regions. Neyyatinkara taluk stretches over all the three regions.

Crops

Highland : Rubber , tea , cardamom , other spices
Midland : Paddy , tapioca , cashew
Lowland : Coconut palms

Climate

The large forest reserves favourably affect the climate and induce rain in the district. It is cool in the mountain ranges and hot in the plains. Humidity is high and rises to 90 percent during the south-west monsoon. The district gets rainfall from both the south-west monsoon and the north-east monsoon.The south-west monsoon starts by June and fades out by September. The north-east monsoon starts in October. During the months of April and May , the mean daily maximum temperature rises to 35º celsius and in December-January it may go down to 20º celsius.