ABSTRACT
All of the Union Territory’s regions are on flat, coastal land, although Mahe town is sited on a low hill. Pondicherry, the territorial capital, is on the Coromandel Coast, north of the Ponnaivar river, presiding over a collection of blocks and pockets of territory mingled with enclaves of surrounding Tamil Nadu state. The town of Pondicherry is 162 km (101 miles) south of Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu, and 22 km north of another Tamil Nadu city, Cuddalore. Further south, also on the Bay of Bengal, 132 km from the territorial capital, is the more compact region of Karaikal, on the Kaveri delta. To the north and east, 870 km from Pondicherry, lies its enclave of Yanam, surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. The town and a few attached villages lie some 14 km inland from the mouths of the mighty Godavari, where the Koringa (Atreya) branch separates from the Gauthami. On the other side of the Indian peninsula (westwards, 653 km overland from Pondicherry), on the Malabar Coast, is the smallest enclave of the territory, Mahe (formerly Mahé). It comprises Mahe town on the south bank of the eponymous river, which flows into the Arabian Sea from the south-east, Kallayi on the north bank and, beyond the main coastal road, stretching further north to the Ponniyar (Moolakadavu) river, Naluthara. The climate of the territory is tropical, the east coast settlements getting most of their rain between October and December and temperatures usually ranging between 21°C (70°F) and 42°C (108°F). Mahe shares the more tempered climate of Kerala, which does not have a totally dry season (its highest rainfall is between June and September) and where maximum temperatures seldom exceed 32°C (90°F).
