Chennai district, formerly known as Madras district, is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is the smallest and densest of all the districts in the state. Most of the Greater Chennai City comes under this district, erstwhile under Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu districts. As of 2011, the district had a population of 7,100,000 with a sex-ratio of 989 females for every 1,000 males. Chennai is a megacity and local government district that contains the historic centre and the Central business district of Chennai metropolitan area. It constituted most of Chennai from its settlement by the peoples in the 1st century CE to the Middle Ages, but the city has since grown much since then. The city forms a small part of the metropolis of Chennai, though it remains a notable part of central Chennai metropolitan area. In 2018, the district limits were expanded, aligning with that of the newly formed Greater Chennai Corporation, which resulted in the area being increased from to. The district has three revenue divisions and ten taluks.
Chennai district covers an area of 426 km2 located on the Eastern Coastal Plains of India. It is situated on the northeastern corner of Tamil Nadu along the Coramandel coast, a region bounded by the Bay of Bengal and is surrounded inland by the districts of Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu. It lies between 12°59' and 13°9' of the northern latitude and 80°12' and 80°19' of the eastern longitude at an average altitude of 6 metres above sea level on a 'sandy shelving breaker swept' beach. Terrain slope varies from 1:5000 to 1:10,000. The terrain is very flat with contours ranging from 2 m to 10 mabove mean sea level with a few isolated hillocks in the southwest beyond the district limits at St. Thomas Mount, Pallavaram and Tambaram. The district runs inland in a rugged semi-circular fashion and its coastline is about 25.60 km. Because of its strategic location and economic importance, it is referred to as the "Gateway of South India." The drainage system includes two rivers, namely, Cooum and Adyar, a canal, and a stream slicing the district into several islands. The district falls under Seismic Zone III indicating a moderate risk of earthquake. Geologically the district is divided into three regions, namely, sandy, clayey and hard-rock regions. The soil comprises clay, shale and sandstone. Of the total land area, reserved forests cover 2.71 km2 and is concentrated in and around the Guindy National Park region, one of the few national parks in the world located within a city. The forest cover of the district is as follows:
Class
Area
Percentage
Dense forest
151.01
1.16
Moderate dense TOF
121.16
0.93
Non-forest
12,215.56
94.06
Open forest
114.24
0.88
Open TOF
153.73
1.18
Water
231.46
1.78
Total
12,987.16
100
Climate
Demographics
According to 2011 census, Chennai district had a population of 7,100,000 with a sex-ratio of 989 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 16.78% and 0.22% of the population respectively. The average literacy of the district was 81.27%, compared to the national average of 72.99%. The district had a total of 154,982 households. There were a total of 1,817,297 workers, comprising 10,210 cultivators, 10,251 main agricultural labourers, 29,143 in house hold industries, 1,569,950 other workers, 197,743 marginal workers, 4,244 marginal cultivators, 3,423 marginal agricultural labourers, 8,202 marginal workers in household industries and 181,874 other marginal workers.
Administration and politics
In 2013, five taluks on the district were split to create five new ones: Velachery, Purasawalkam, Ayanavaram, Aminjikarai and Guindy. In January 2018, the state government announced that the district will be expanded to match the boundaries of the Greater Chennai Corporation. This will integrate six additional taluks from Tiruvallur and Kanchipuram districts into the Chennai district. The new divisions and taluks of the district will be: The estimated population of the district is around 7.1 million.
