District Profile

              Kannur is a beautiful miniature of the picturesque state of Kerala. New history of Kannur commence since the arrival of Europeans. In 16th centuary Portugese, Dutches, English and french people landed at Kannur. In february 1766 Hyderali invaded and subdued Kolathunadu, subsequently during his invassion Tippu sulthan subdued Malabar and Kannur then Malabar came under Mysore Regime. In 1792 the people attacked and defeated Tippusulthan. Former Malabar District was brought under British Regime.

              The former Kannur district was formed out of the portions of Malabar district and the Kasargode taluk of the Madras state, linked to Kerala as per the state Re-organaisation Act. There upon 1st January 1957 it was bifurcated for administrative convenience, in to three district namely Kannur, Kozhikode, and Palakad. Then kannur district had six taluks namely Kasargode, Hosdurgu, Thaliparamba, Kannur, Thalassery and North Wayanad. On 1.1.1979 North Wayanad was linked to wayanad district. On formation of kasargode district, the thaluks namely Kasargode & Hosdurgu were de-linked from Kannur district and the present Kannur district was formed with the remaining taluks namely Taliparamba, Kannur and Thalassery.

             The district is bound by the western ghats in the east (Kodagu district of Karnatak), Kozhikode & Wayanad District in the south, Lakshadweep sea in the west and Kasargode District in the North. It is located between attitudes 11 degree 40 ” and 12 degree 48 ” towards north and between longitude 75 degree 10 ” and 75 degree 57 ” towards east.

             The old part St. Angelo built by Don-Francisco-De-Almayde the Portugese Viceroy, in 1505 at Ayikkara Beach near Kannur Cantonment, and the Thalassery port built by the English East India Compony in 1708 A.D are monuments of historical importence which attracts tourists. The only drive-in-beach in Kerala is at Muzhappilangad in Kannur. Thalassery is also acknowledged as the home of indianCircus which is believed to have evolved from the celebrated Martial Arts “Kalaripayatu”. The pageant of impersonated local deities .Theyyams-elevates Kannur in to a land of spectacular fantasies .

             Payyannur in Kannur district is believed to be one of the 64 villages founded by Lord Parasurama and one of the first region inhabited by Aryan emmigrants.

             The parassinikadavu-Muthappan Temple, Raja Rajeswar Temple-Thaliparamba, the snake Park at Parasinikadavu, the Trichambaram sree Krishna Temple and Pythalmala are some of the other place which attracts tourists.

             Dr. Herman Gundart, the famous German Missionery and lexicographer, compiled the first dictionery in Malayalam when he lived in Thalassery in the first half  of the 19th centuary.Head quarters of Kannur is  Kannur town, the district has its Revenue Divisional office at Thalassery from 1793 (as a part of formar Malabar District ).

Demography

         The population of Kannur district as per 2001 census is 24,12365. Out of this 1154144 are males and 1258221 are females. The sex ratio is 1090 females to 1000 males and ranks 8th among all other districts of the state.

         In terms of total population Kannur ranks ninth place in the state (Density of population 813 persons per 59 sq.km). The Density of population is highest in Kannur Taluk (1627) followed by Thalassery Taluk (714) and Thaliparmba Taluk (502). The district is predominantly rural in nature, by only 49.13% of the population inhabit in villages. The growth rate of the district is 16.63%, which is above the growth rate of the state (14.32). The percentage of urban population to rural population is highest in Kannur District. i.e., 50.14. Kannur District has the largest number of towns. As compared to other district in Kerala, the district takes the second position in respect of percentage of urban population (14.72)

         Analysis of the age-wise population data obtained from House to House Surveys revealed that Iritty Educational Block holds the highest population i.e., 208013. The sex ratio of Kannur district is 1090 Females to 1000 males. But the male population of 0-14 age group is considerably lower as compared to the female population for that age group. For all other age groups, general trend of Kerala is observed i.e., female population is more than male population is observed. This factor may be due to the effort of some parents to avoid female birth. This indicates a very dangerous social evil and demands a high voltage programme for creating awareness among the society to end cruelty and discriminations to girl child.

         Taliparamba block occupies the highest population among the group ie 31,07,56. Payyannur (269604) stand / second just behind and Edakkad (235106) as the third. In all developmental blocks except Iritty, female population is higher than male population. Another observation is that there is no similarity with two adjacent blocks in population. Very high distances between the populations among blocks are observed. Example Thaliparamba and Kannur. This is the same case with geographical area, number of panchayaths etc.

Area
Population
No. of CD blocks	9
No. of Villages	128
No. of Municipalities	6
No. of Corporations	0

No. of Panchayaths	81
No. of DEOs	2
No. of AEOs	9
No. of BRCs	15
No. of URCs	0
No. of CRCs	88

No. of AIE centres	19
No. of ECCE centres
No. of LP schools	721
No. of UP schools	28
No. of HS / HSS	122