TN Top 10 Cities as per provisional population in the 2011 census 

Updated figures with provisional 2011 Census tables. 

Notes and highlights

Ranking is based on Urban Agglomeration (UA) population

The expanded municipal corporation limits of most of the cities were not considered in census results as it was conducted earlier to expansion.  But the UA population in general will accommodate the urbanised Metro area.

Chennai has managed to retain the 4th place at all India level by a very thin margin of less than 2 lakhs over Bangalore.

Tiruppur continues to grow in a frenetic pace and now occupies 5th spot and close to the million mark.

Coimbatore has had a robust growth (almost 50%) and soon we can see a Kovai - Tiruppur metropolitan area.

Trichy managed to cross the million mark and retain fourth place. Salem missed both the magic million figure and 5th place.

Erode has climbed above Tirunelveli with a little bit of reconfiguration of UA from 2001 census (Bhavani areas has been added to Erode UA while the Namakkal district places of Erode UA in 2001 census have been listed under Komarapalayam UA. For practical purposes, Erode and Komarapalayam should be considered as single UA or as twin cities. Rankings however dont change.

Vellore too to an extent suffers like Erode as Ranipet UA has been counted as a separate UA. However, there is still a lack of contiguity between the two cities which may be bridged by next census.

The next 5 are (11) Dindigul - 2,92,132 (12) Thanjavur - 2,90,724(13) Ranipet - 2,62,346(14) Sivakasi - 2,34,688 and (15) Karur - 2,33,763

2001 Results for comparison

The next 5 are (11) Thanjavur - 2,15,525 (12) Nagercoil - 2,08,149 (13) Dindigul - 1,96,619 (14) Kanchipuram - 1,88,349 and (15) Kumbakonam - 1,60,027 

Kere Thonnur once called Thondanur is a village near Melkote. This place has 4 temples associated with Vaishnavite saint Ramanuja. We wanted to visit it during our earlier Melkote Visit but lack of time put paid to those hopes. Luckily we got another opportunity to goto Melkote in June and had enough time to visit this place. The village is some 4 kms off the state highway between Srirangapatna to Pandavapura as we travel from Melkote. The main highway is a very nice drive but the local road is not. All the temples were calm and serene, no towering gopurams but no milling crowds or any semblence of commercialisation.

Once we reach the village, we can see 2 temples on either side of the road. One on the right is Nambi Narayana Temple supposed to be some 5000 years old but for sure at least 1000 years old.

Nambi Narayana Temple

On the opposite side of the road is Parthasarathy / Venugopala Swamy Temple which is even older.

There are some old frescoes here which are ill maintained and slowly fading.

Temple Frescoes

On a small hillock / rock nearby is a Narasimha temple, you have to go through the govt. school to reach here. Within the same premises is the hall /sannithi where Saint Ramanuja had won a philosophical debate over Jain scholars and where he is supposed to have displayed he was Adisesha Avathar. I think it is considered as a separate temple.

The Kere (lake) in Kere Thonnur is reached via a muddy road maybe 200 metres from the main road. Seems to be a popular one as there were at least half a dozen cars there. The lake is huge and a sight for sore eyes. Didnt see any boating options, you just go there to take in the views and maybe have a picnic lunch.

The actual Thonnur Kere (lake)

My Chennaispot blog database has got corrupted today, maybe due to hacking. So after a lot of struggle, restored from latest available backup of August. Since, there were no new posts, didn’t lose much content. All comments posted after August are gone. Sorry for the incovenience to all commenters. I will try and take more frequent backups in future.

If any viewere find some post not working, please let me know.

Melkote or Melukote  (or ThiruNarayanapuram for Tamils), is one of the most important Vaishnava temple in Karnataka. Inspite of living (on and off) in Bangalore since 97′ I have never been to Melkote before and the long weekend over Christmas gave me the opportunity to do so. The route was Bangalore - Ramanagaram - Maddur - Mandya - Melkote about 160 Kms and a projected 3 hours journey.

We left on Saturday Dec 26 a little late around 8 AM. It turned out to be a wrong time as we got stuck in heavy traffic throughout.  By the time we could reach the famous Kamat Lokaruchi for breakfast it was past 10 AM. It took an hour to leave that place  as everyone from Bangalore seemed to travel towards Mysore and was coming there only for food. The going was slow even after that as town after town came within 15 - 20 Kms of each other. I missed the turn to Melkote before Mandya bus stand and after enquiries at a tea shop took another smaller road a little after Mandya entry / exit arch. The road joins the Mandya - Hassan highway which takes you to Melkote. It was  around 1:15 PM when we could join the queue for Darshan at the Cheluva Narayana Temple in Melkote.
 

The Road to Melkote

Cheluva Narayana Temple

Temple Sculptures

Temple Sculptures

 On the way down, we stopped at the Pancha Kalyani, (temple kulam) for some pics. It was big and not unclean.

Temple Pond (Kalyani)

 We enquired with the Auto-driver for other places and on his recommendation went to Raya Gopura and ornamental tower / structure near the edge of Melkote. We had an informal guide who said we can even see Sravanabelagola Statue from the top on a clear day. We couldnt that day but spent some time clicking photos all around.

Raya Gopuram

Our initial plan was to cover Melkote and if possible Srirangapatna too and auto driver had recommended another place called Thondanure (Thendnur Kere) with a few more temples on village side. As it was getting late and I not being comfortable with night drving in our highways, we had to skip those for another time. We left Melkote at 5 and reached Mandya by 6 PM. it was already dark and I was little apprehensive of driving in the night. Without little choice, we still carried on. The heavy traffic was a blessing in disguise as I had sufficient lighting and directions from the other vehicles. With another 1 hour break at Kamat lokaruchi including some shopping and getting stuck in railway crossing in the ring road between Tumkur Road - Jalahalli, we reached home at 10:30 PM tired but satisfied with a day spent well.

Yelagiri lake view

Then we went to the nature park (entrance fees Rs 15/adult). The park was small but very well maintained. The play area for children had lots of play equipments which the children in the group enjoyed. There is even an artificial waterfall inside the park.

Yelagiri Nature Park

We finished our visit a little after noon and it was time for the checkout. The downward trip to the plains was interrupted for a couple of photo sessions but otherwise uneventful.

My Bangalore friend wanted to goto Krishnagiri Dam which was just a little detour towards Salem highway from Krishnagiri. So went to the dam, which was full and took more photos. The park attached to the dam was big not very clean. There are no boating facilities in the reservoir either.

Krishnagiri Dam / reservoir

So after spending just over half an hour there we returned to Bangalore. Yelagiri can be made as a day trip from Bangalore or Chennai, what with the lack of options, but it is better to spend overnight for a more relaxed trip. Our stay, Hotel Hills was ok but I would keep it as a secondary option and try out other places such as Landmark ,Zeenath taj or Sterling on my next visit.

Yelagiri is a small hill station near Tirupattur / Vaniyambadi in Vellore District, about 150 Kms from Bangalore and 220 from Chennai. Not very well known, with very little to see or do,  it is nevertheless getting increasing crowd from Bangalore and Chennai due to it being just off the 4 lane Golden Quadrilateral route. Quite a few hotels have come up in recent years although no fancy ones. A paragliding adventure activity was organised last year bringing a little more fame to the place.  This was the place chosen by me and some friends for a break / family get together. 2 families from Bangalore and 2 from Chennai were to meet up here in December 12-13 weekend to spend a relaxing holiday. For me this will be the first drive in a ghat section and no easier introduction than Yelagiri with well laid roads and just 14 Hairpin bends.

We left in our Ford Ikon an hour later than the planned 6:30 AM from home. The route was Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Vaniyambadi (GQ) - a little after the toll gate turn right (almost U turn) after exiting the GQ to join Vaniyambadi - Salem SH18, turn left about 10 KMs later at Ponneri to enter the Yelagiri Ghat Road. Click link for Google Maps Route to Yelagiri from Bangalore. As per plan I met my Bangalore friend at Adayar Ananda Bhavan (A2B), Chinnar about 27 KMs after Hosur. After finishing Breakfast continued on our way to reach Hotel Hills, Yelagiri by 11:30 AM. The distance was 163 KMs from our Home. The hill ride as expected was not difficult. It was beginning to get misty when we were driving but by the time our Chennai friends reached half an hour later, fog got heavier.

Yelagiri Ghat Road

Plains from Yelagiri Ghat Road

After completing the check in formalities and freshening up we left immediately to the Yelagiri / Punganoor lake. Just a couple of hundred metres away from the hotel, the lake is the main attraction in Yelagiri. A 3 rupee entrance ticket gives you access to the lake and a small park with children’s play area. There are pedal and row boats to go around the lake and our big group took two row boats (Rs 120 for 8 persons). It took about 15 minutes to cover the entire lake and we got some useful information from the boatman about possible sight seeing activities.

Yelagiri Lake

After this we wanted to go for a walk around the lake where a well laid path exists. However, it started raining heavily so we had to chnage plans and return to Hotel for lunch. The lunch was average but heavy but the service was very attentive. It was still raining heavily so we had to stay put in the hotel and catch up with each other’s lives. It was also getting foggier which gave a real hill station feel to the place. We could leave the hotel only around 5 when the rain subsided. We just went for a walk along the main road and returned to the nature park, with the attraction of a musical fountain. Unfortunately for us, it was cancelled due to rains. Initially they said they wanted at least 30 people (and no rains), when we offered to pay for 30 people and dont mind getting wet, they checked with someone and said, they couldnt take the music boxes out if it rains. The day ended with a light dinner and chatting till midnight.

Contd..