Chittoor district () is one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. The district headquarters is located at Chittoor. It has a population of 4,170,468 according to

2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Informatio ...

. It lies in the Poini River Valley of southernmost Andhra Pradesh along the

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

–

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

section of Chennai-Mumbai highway. Chittoor district is a major market centre for mangoes, grains,

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

, and

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small an ...

Etymology

The district derived its name from its headquarters Chittoor.

History

After the Indian independence in 1947, Chittoor became a part of the erstwhile

Madras state Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...

. The modern Chittoor District was formerly Arcot District, which was established by the British in the 19th century had Chittoor as its headquarters. On 1 April 1911, district was split into Chittoor District and North Arcot Districts. Chittoor District was formed on 1 April 1911, taking Chittoor, Palamaneru, Tirupati, from the then North Arcot District of

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...

and Madanapalle, Vayalpadu from Kadapa and Pileru, Punganur,

Sri Kalahasti Srikalahasti is a holy town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the revenue division of Srikalahasti mandal & Srikalahasti revenue division. It is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority, wh ...

Karvetinagar Karvetinagar or Karvetinagaram is a village in Chittoor district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Karvetinagar mandal. The town is known for Venugopalaswamy Temple, that was constructed during the reign of Venkat ...

from Zamindari tahsils of the Chittoor district to form united Chittoor district. In 1960, 319 villages in Chittoor district were added into Chingleput District now Kanchipuram district and

Thiruvallur Tiruvallur is a Grade I municipality and a fast developing city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of Coovum river about from downtown Chennai (Madras) and just 5 km from megacity border, in the western p ...

districts of Tamil Nadu and subsequently

Sathyavedu Satyavedu is a town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It borders the state of Tamil Nadu on its southern part. It is located 60 km north of Chennai metropolitan citiy. It is also connected with Sri City on its ...

and Kuppam of Chingleput District was transferred to Chittoor district on linguistic basis based on the Act called The Andhra Pradesh And Madras (Alteration Of Boundaries) Act, 1959. From 4 April 2022, Chittoor District is divided into 3

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

s. The districts are

Tirupati District Tirupati district () is one of the twenty-six districts in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the Andhra Pradesh state. The district headquarters is located at Tirupati city. Tirupati ...

, Annamayya District and Chittoor District.

Geography

Chittoor is a part of Rayalaseema region of

. The district occupies an area of . The district is bounded by Annamayya district to the north, Krishnagiri District, tirupattur District, Vellore District and Tiruvallur District of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

state to the south,

to the east, Kolar District of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

state to the west. Chittoor District lies extreme south of the Andhra Pradesh state approximately between 12°37′ - 14°8′ north latitudes and 78°3′ - 79°55′ east longitudes. Thirty percent of the total land area is covered by forests in the district. Mango and

tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs to the family Fabacea ...

groves surround the city of Chittoor, and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...

are raised in the district. The soils in the district constitute red loamy 57%, red sandy 34% and the remaining 9% is covered by black clay black loamy, black sandy and red clay Chittoor is 160 km from Chennai, 180 km from Bangalore and 590 km from

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

Hydrology and climate

The important rivers in the district are Ponnai and Swarnamukhi rivers which originate in the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and ...

. Other rivers include Kusasthali, Beema, Bahuda, Pincha, Kalyani, Araniyar and Pedderu. None of the rivers are perennial. Main rivers include Swarnamukhi, Kalangi, Papaghni, Koundinya, Pileru, Arani, Pinchcha, Cheyyeru, Neeva and Kusasthali. The district has a very short coastline, bordered by the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

. The temperature in the western parts of the district like Punganur, Madanapalle,

Horsley Hills Horsley Hills or Horsleykonda or Yenugulla Mallamma Konda is a series of hills in Andhra Pradesh in Madanapalle Taluka of Annamayya district and is about 9 miles from Madanapalle town. The local name of the hill was Yenugu Mallama Konda after a ...

are relatively lower than the eastern parts of the Chittoor District. This is because of the higher altitude of the western parts compared to the eastern parts. The summer temperatures touches 44 °C in the eastern parts whereas in the western parts it ranges around 36° to 38 °C. Similarly the winter temperatures of the western parts are relatively low ranging around 12 °C to 14 °C and in eastern parts it is 16 °C to 18 °C. Most of a district has a Tropical wet and dry climate, with some north-western parts having Hot semi-arid climate. Chittoor district receives an annual rainfall of 918.1 mm. The South West

Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

and North East Monsoon are the major sources of rainfall for the district. On average the district receives 438.0 mm of rainfall through the South West Monsoon (From June to September) and 396.0 mm from North East Monsoon (From October to December). The rainfall received by the district in the years 2002 and 2003 are 984.2 mm and 934 mm respectively.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Chittoor district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 4,174,064. This gives it a ranking of 47th in India (out of a total of 640) and 6th in its state. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 11.33%. Chittoor has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species dev ...

of 1002 females for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 72.36%. After bifurcation, the district had a population of 18,72,951, of which 368,644 (19.68%) lived in urban areas. Chittoor district has a sex ratio of 993 females per 1000 males. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 3,94,327 (21.05%) and 51,574 (2.75%) of the population respectively. In 2007–2008 the International Institute for Population Sciences interviewed 1010 households in 38 villages across the district. They found that 92.7% had access to

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

, 99.6% had

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, ...

, 33.3% toilet facilities, and 53.8% lived in a

pucca ''Pucca'' (; ko, 뿌까 ) is a South Korean media franchise from the South Korean company VOOZ Character System. The main and titular character, Pucca, is the niece of three Korean men who run a Chinese-style restaurant. The restaurant, known as ...

(permanent) home. 29.3% of girls wed before the legal age of 18 and 88.2% of interviewees carried a BPL card. At the time of the 2011 census, 73.23% of the population spoke

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

, 16.75%

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

and 8.72%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

is the primary official language of the district along with English.

is widely spoken in the border areas, especially in Kuppam.

Administrative Divisions

The district is divided into 4 revenue divisions which are Nagari, Chittoor, Palamaneru and Kuppam. Each revenue division is divided into mandals. The district has 31 mandals under these 4 revenue divisions. There are 1

Municipal Corporation A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally ...

s of Chittoor and 4

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

of Kuppam, Punganur, Palamaner and Nagari in the district. Before formation of Mandal System, Administration was done through Talukas System. Here are the Previous Talukas in the district.

Politics

There are two Parliamentary & seven assembly constituencies located in this district. The Parliamentary constituencies are

Chittoor (Lok Sabha constituency) Chittoor is a city and district headquarters in Chittoor district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is also the mandal and divisional headquarters of Chittoor mandal and Chittoor revenue division respectively. The city has a popula ...

, Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency. The assembly constituency are:

Towns in district

Source for Above Population https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/2823_PART_A_DCHB_CHITTOOR.pdf

Economy

The Gross District Domestic Product (GDDP) of the district is and it contributes 6.6% to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). For the FY 2013–14, the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

at current prices was . The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the district contribute , and respectively. The major products contributing to the GVA of the district from agriculture and allied services are,

groundnut Groundnut may refer to: * Seeds that ripen underground, of the following plants, all in the Faboideae subfamily of the legumes: ** ''Best Basketball Player'', Obinna Udunni ** ''Arachis villosulicarpa'', a perennial peanut species ** ''Vigna subt ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

, mango,

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...

, meat and

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, ...

. The GVA to the industrial and service sector is contributed from

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

and ownership of dwellings. In 2006 the Indian government named Chittoor one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the thirteen districts in Andhra Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Notable people

Mumtaz Ali Mumtaz Ali (15 March 1905 – 6 May 1974) was an Indian dancer and character actor in Hindi cinema from the 1940s to 1970s. He was the father of Indian actor Mehmood. He also had his own dance troupe "Mumtaz Ali Nites" which performed all ove ...

, philosopher and educationist *

M. A. Ayyangar Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar (4 February 1891 – 19 March 1978) was the first Deputy Speaker and then Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the Indian Parliament. He also served as the 5th Governor of Bihar. He was born in Thiruchanoor, Tirupa ...

, first deputy speaker and second Speaker of

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

* Bhuvaneswari (actress), film actress * Jiddu Krishnamurti, philosopher * Bindu Madhavi, film actress * V. Nagayya, film actor * D. K. Adikesavulu Naidu, Member of Parliament * Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu, politician * N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh (1995–2004), and first Chief Minister of Residual State Of Andhra Pradesh (2014–2019) * Rama Prabha, actress *

Madhurantakam Rajaram Madhurantakam Rajaram (Telugu: మధురాంతకం రాజారాం) (5 October 1930 – 1 April 1999) was an Indian author who is considered one of the foremost of modern Telugu short story writers. He is the winner of Sahitya Akade ...

, writer,

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

winner *

Shobha Raju Mahalakshmi Menon, best known by her stagename Shobha (23 September 1962 – 1 May 1980), was an Indian actress best known for her work in Malayalam and Tamil films. At the age of 17, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her ro ...

, musician, devotional singer, writer and composer, an exponent of '' sankirtana'' of the gospel of the 15th-century saint-composer,

Annamacharya Tallapaka Annamacharya (Telugu : తాళ్ళపాక అన్నమాచార్య) (IAST: taḷḷapāka annamācārya; 22 May 1408 – 4 April 1503), also popularly known as Annamayya, was a 15th-century Hindu saint and the ea ...

Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy Sir Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy (10 December 1880 – 24 February 1951), also popularly known as Sir C. R. Reddy, was an educationist and political thinker, essayist and economist, poet and literary critic. He was a prominent member of the Just ...

, educationist and political thinker, essayist and economist, poet and literary critic * Sir C.R. Reddy, educationalist, founder and vice-chancellor of Andhra University * P. Chinnamma Reddy, politician * N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (2010–2014) * Pratap C Reddy, founder of Apollo Hospitals *

Raj Reddy Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born 13 June 1937) is an Indian-American computer scientist and a winner of the Turing Award. He is one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mello ...

Computer Scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

and winner of

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...

* Roja Selvamani, actress * Saptagiri (actor), Telugu film actor * Shafi (actor), film actor

Transport

The district has road connectivity by means of national and state highways. The main part of the National Highways runs through Chittoor City National Highway 69 and National Highway 40 that connects the main metro cities of South India from

NH 716 National Highway 716 (NH 716)(formerly: NH 205) is a National Highway in India. It starts from its junction with NH 16 near Chennai in Tamil Nadu and terminates at its junction with NH 40 near Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. Route It starts at ...

connecting

passes through the district. The total road length of

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

s in the district is .

Education

The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools, under the ''School Education Department'' of the state. As per the school information report for the academic year 2015–16, there are a total of 6,100 schools. They include, 45 government, 4,507 mandal and zilla parishads, 2 residential, 1,268 private, 17 model, 20 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), 158 municipal and 84 other types of schools. The total number of students enrolled in primary, upper primary and high schools of the district are 562,504. Chittoor district is home to the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory
NARL
of the Department of Space. The lab is involved in carrying out fundamental and applied research in Atmospheric and Space Sciences. It also has

Dravidian University The Dravidian University, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, India was established by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, through a Legislature Act (No. 17 of 1997) with the initial support extended by the governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala for ...

, Government Intermediate, Degree and Polytechnic Colleges.

Temples

There are forty-three temples under the management of Endowments Department

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Districts of Andhra Pradesh Rayalaseema 1911 establishments in India