Land

The Union Territory of Pondicherry extends from Latitude 11056' in the North to Longitude 79053' in the East. Pondicherry comprises of four coastal regions namely Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. Pondicherry and Karaikal are situated on the East Coasts in Tamil Nadu, Yanam in Andhra Pradesh, and Mahe on the West Coast in Kerala. It is still not known why, the French and the British limited their territories in the intermingling manner, making Pondicherry a peculiar case for territorial jurisdiction.

Pondicherry encompasses an area of only 492 sq km with Pondicherry town and its villages covering 293 sq.km surrounded by the south Arcot District, Karaikal town and its villages covering 160 sq.km surrounded by Tanjavur district, Mahe and its villages covering 9 sq km surrounded by the Kerala state, and Yanam covering 30 sq.km within the East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. While Pondicherry, the head quarters of the union territory, lies 162 km south of Madras and 22 km north of Cuddalore, Karaikal is about 150 km south of Pondicherry and Yanam about 840 km north-east of Pondicherry on the Andhra Coast. Mahe lies almost parallel to Pondicherry, 653 km away on the west coast.

Pondicherry more or less is a flat land with no hills and forests. Interspersed with parts of Cuddalore and Villupuram districts of Tamil Nadu, the Union Territory of Pondicherry presents a picture of scattered parts.

Despite of the high degree of urbanisation, about 40% of the people depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Beside rice and some other food crops, like ragi, bajra and pulses, a number of cash crops like sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts are also produced in Pondicherry.

Milk production and distribution is well organised and it is largely in the cooperative sector. A well established modern dairy is one of the achievement s of Pondicherry.

Fishery is an important occupation as the Union Territory has a total length of about 45 km of  coastline. There are about 28 sea fishing villages in the union territory. While those engaged purely in inland fishing number 17. The inland fishery depends on lakes, ponds, tanks and river water.

Main item exported include rice, fish, hides and skin etc.

There are 23 large and 79 medium scale industries. There are also 5, 400 small scale industries. All these generate employment opportunities to nearly 50,000 persons.