Pathanamthitta district
The district Pathanamthitta is a district in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Council is based in the eponymous city of Pathanamthitta.
Geography
The district Pathanamthitta is located inland in the southern part of Kerala. Its area is 2637 km ². The district Pathanamthitta is bordered by the districts of Kollam in the south, Alappuzha in the west, Kottayam and Idukki in the north and in the east of Tirunelveli. The latter already belongs to the neighboring federal state of Tamil Nadu.
The western part of the district of Pathanamthitta is part of the shallow coastal hinterland. To the east, the landscape rises above the hilly areas in the center of the district on the way to the Western Ghats mountain range which forms a natural border with Tamil Nadu. More than half of the district area is forested. In the northeast of Pathanamthitta district is a part of the Periyar National Park.
The district Pathanamthitta is divided into five taluks Thiruvalla, Mallappally, Ranni, and Adoor Kozhenchery.
History
During the British colonial period, the area of present-day district Pathananmthitta the princely state of Travancore belonged. This united after Indian independence with Cochin Travancore -Cochin and the Federation took place in 1949 following the Indian Union. 1956 Travancore -Cochin was merged with the Malabar district of the State of Madras to the new state of Kerala. As an independent district consists Pathanamthitta since 1982, when it was founded by the union of regions from the districts of Alappuzha, Idukki and Kollam.
Population
According to Indian census, 2011, the district Pathanamthitta has 1,195,537 inhabitants. With 453 inhabitants per square kilometer, the district is sparsely populated than the rest of Kerala. The district Pathanamthitta is one of the few regions of India with a declining population trend: Between 2001 and 2011, the population shrank by 3.1 %. The literacy rate is higher than the already high average of Kerala. With 96.9 %, it is the highest of all districts of Kerala and one of the highest in India.
The main religions in the district of Pathanamthitta are Hinduism and Christianity. According to the 2001 census, 56.3 % of the population are Hindus to Christianity to 39.0 % of the population profess. Muslims constitute 4.6%, only a small minority.
Religious Sites
In the district of Pathanamthitta are several important sites of different religious communities. In the densely forested mountains 65 km east of the district municipal seat Pathananamthitta is the Hindu pilgrimage center Sabarimala. Here is Ayyappan worshiped mainly in Kerala a very popular regional deity. Despite its remoteness Sabarimala attracts several million almost exclusively male pilgrims.
Thiruvalla, the largest city of the district of Pathanamthitta, is the center of the Mar Thoma Church, a Reformation elimination of the Thomas Christians. In the small town Maramon is held annually the Maramon Convention of the Mar Thoma Church, which is the largest Christian event in Asia.