Chennai

Sister cities

• Ulsan
• Denver
• Chongqing
• Chemnitz
• Kuala Lumpur
• Frankfurt
• San Antonio
• Volgograd

History

Stone Age implements have been found near Pallavaram in Chennai, and according to the Archaeological Survey of India, Pallavaram was a megalithic cultural establishment, with evidence of pre-historic settlements. The region around Chennai was an important administrative, military, and economic centre for many centuries. During the 1st century CE, Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar lived in the town of Mylapore, a neighbourhood of present-day Chennai. In the 2nd century CE, the region was part of Tondaimandalam ruled by the Early Cholas, who subdued the Kurumbas, the original inhabitants of the region. The Pallavas of Kanchi became the independent rulers of the region from 3rd to 9th century CE, and the areas of Mahabalipuram and Pallavaram were developed during the reign of Pallava king Mahendravarman I. In 879 CE, the Pallavas were defeated by the Later Cholas led by Aditya I. Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan later brought the region under the Pandya rule in 1264 CE. The Portuguese arrived in 1522 CE and built the port of São Tomé, named after the Christian apostle St. Thomas, who is believed to have preached in the area between 52 and 70 CE. In 1612, the Dutch established themselves near Pulicat to the north of Chennai. On 20 August 1639, Francis Day of the British East India Company, along with the Chennapa Nayaka, the Nayak of Kalahasti, met with the Vijayanagara emperor Peda Venkata Raya at Chandragiri and requested a grant for land on the Coromandel coast on which the company would build a factory and warehouse for their trading activities. On 22 August 1639, a grant was given for a strip of land about long and inland for an annual sum of fifty million pagodas. The land was then part of a fishing village known as Madraspatnam. In 1746, during the Battle of Madras, the…

Geography

Chennai is located on the southeastern coast of India and northeastern part of Tamil Nadu. It lies on a flat coastal plain known as the Eastern Coastal Plains, with an average elevation of and highest point at . The geology consists of mostly clay soil, with shale and sandstone rocks. Clay underlies most of the city with sandy areas found along the river banks and coasts where rainwater runoff percolates quickly through the soil. Certain areas in South Chennai have a hard rock surface. As of 2018, the city had a green cover of 14.9 per cent, and a per capita green cover of against the World Health Organization recommendation of . , water bodies covered an estimated area of the city. Two major rivers flow through Chennai, the Cooum River through the centre and the Adyar River to the south. A section of the Buckingham Canal built in 1877–78, runs parallel to the Bay of Bengal coast, linking the two rivers. Kosasthalaiyar River traverses through the northern fringes of the city before draining into the Bay of Bengal, at Ennore Creek. The Otteri Nullah, an east–west stream, runs through north Chennai and meets the Buckingham Canal at Basin Bridge. The groundwater table in Chennai is at below ground level on average and is replenished mainly by rainwater. The city has a coastline, of which experiences erosion, with sand accretion along the shoreline at the Marina beach and the area between the Ennore Port and Kosasthalaiyar.

Most-observed species

• House Crow

  Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  20,460
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  18,629
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  16,412
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  16,225
• Asian Koel

  Eudynamys scolopaceus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,401
• Large-billed Crow

  Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler, 1827 · Aves
  11,366
• Common Tailorbird

  Orthotomus sutorius (Pennant, 1769) · Aves
  9,952
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  9,389