Thirukkattuthurai
Thirukkattuthurai is a small village located in Karur District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the first of the three wards of the Thirukkattuthurai village Panchayat. The village is situated on the bank of the river Cauvery. The village Co-operative water pumping station is the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu planned by O.K.Ramaswamy Gounder and inaugurated by K.Kamarajar, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in that period. It is about 4.5 km from TNPL Pugalur. The adjacent towns and villages are Aalamarathumeydu, Karapalayam, Nadayanur, Velayuthampalayam, Kattipalayam and Thavittupalayam. The adjacent town Velayuthampalayam have the  hill named Pugali Malai/Arunattan Malai, which houses Lord Murugan. Demographics. According to latest 2011 Indian census, Thirukkattuthurai has a population of 3011 consisting of 944 families of which the male population is 1458 and the female 1553, with 7.21 percent of the population under six years of age. The literacy rate is 74.84 percent comparable to the state average of 80.09 percent, but the sex ratio is 1065 comparable to the state ratio of 996. Literacy stands at 85.82 percent for men and 64.72 percent for women. 12.85 percent of the total population constitutes Schedule Caste (SC). Work profile . In Thirukkattuthurai village 1694 are engaged in work activities and 99.29 percent of workers describe their work as main job. Out of 1694 workers engaged in main Work, 288 are cultivators while 886 are agricultural labourers. Geography. The Thirukkattuthurai village is 3 kilometers north-west of the town Velayuthampalayam which is located 11°4'48"N 78°0'1"E at average elevation of . Climate. The highest temperature is in early May to early June usually about 34 °C, though it usually exceeds 38 °C for a few days most years. The average daily temperature during January is around 23  °C, though the temperature rarely falls below 17 °C. The average annual rainfall is about 725 mm. It gets most of its seasonal rainfall from the north-east monsoon winds, from late September to mid November. Education. The schools in Thirukkattuthurai panchayat and major schools of nearby panchayats are: Rural-Primary Rural - Higher secondary Urban - Primary Urban - Secondary Urban - Higher Secondary In recent days because of increased awareness the kids go to nearby TNPL Matric School, Pugalur (accredited with Five Star Status by Bharathidasan University, Trichy) and Pugalur Boys and Girls High School for better education of course  including Rangasamy Gounder Higher Secondary School. M. Kumarasamy College of Engineering (MKCE), Thalavapalayam, 639 113, is a landmark on the National High way No.7, located on the Karur – Salem route. It is located away from Thirukkattuthurai. The college is affiliated to the Anna University, Chennai and also approved by the All India Council of Technical Education, New Delhi. It is the major engineering college close to this village. This village panchayat has recently produced many engineering graduates being employed by big multinational companies. Kandaswami Kandar's College, Paramathi Velur is the Arts & Science college situated 6 km from this village . But this college comes under Nammakkal district. Economy. The main dominant form of employment is in agriculture. The main crops grown are Sugarcane, paddy, plantain, yuca or manioc (Maravalli kizhangu), groundnut and corn In recent days coconut trees have become more popular. Many people are also working in TNPL Company. Some go to Karur to work in the textile industry. "Farmers Market" is in Velayuthampalayam (3 km) where farmers used to sell their agricultural commodities during the morning time and also, every Thursday evening, vendors in and around Velayuthampalayam sell domestic commodities in "Velayuthampalaym Market" near to municipality building. Major  household departmental stores nearby are New colombu stores, Navaladi stores and Pugali super market in Velayuthampalayam. Governance. The area is governed by Directorate of Village panchayat which has President, Vice-President, one councilor (per ward) and nine members (for three wards). They are the elected representatives of the village. Elections are conducted once in every five years. Village Code of Thirukkattuthurai Village Panchayat is 12. Banking and other facilities. The village panchayat has also one public library in Nadayanur. Water from Cauvery River is pumped through motor (maintained by the village) to the agriculture fields of the village. Village Ration  shops are in Thirukkattuthurai and Aalamarathumeydu from where pulses, fuel, domestic commodities are bought by village people. The playgrounds and sports material to that is established through the Rural Development Department for the village panchayat. In this village panchayat there are two banks Tamil Nadu co-operative Society in Aalamarathumeydu and Indian overseas bank in Nadayanur. Other banks available are Indian Overseas Bank, Kandampalayam (2.5 km), Bank Of India, Velayuthampalayam (3 km), State Bank of India, Pugalur branch in Kagithapuram (4.5 km). Healthcare. There is Government General Hospital at the footsteps of Pugali Malai in Velayuthampalayam. There are two main  private hospitals on the Karur-Velur highway which has inpatient services. There are many small clinics run by several doctors. The medical services are well supported by clustered medical stores in the junction of velayuthampalayam. For major medical and surgical services, the public go to one of the places (Paramathy Velur, Karur, Erode, Coimbatore, and Trichy). Entertainment and festivals. Most of the town residents have access to almost all Television channels. One has to travel to 'Karur' (21 km) or 'Paramathi Velur' (4 km) to watch a movie in a theatre. There are three theatres in Paramathi Velur:- Abirami theatre , Ganesa theatre and Siva theatre. In Karur there are 10 theatre and its details can be found later. The Thirukkattuthurai village has Pillaiyar temple, Maariyamman temple and Maruthaiveeran temple (Dalits). Pookuli festival of Maariyamman temple - twice in a year during December, April month (walk of devotees over red hot wooden piece) will be there in Thirukkattuthurai and devotees in and around this village will get together. Pugali Malai. The temple in Pugalur situated north west of Karur dedicated to Lord Murugan on a small hill at Velayuthanpalayam and there are many inscriptions about Chera since Karur is the administrative capital  of Chera Dynasty. It is situated 3 km from Thirukkattuthurai. Every year during the first week of February month Thaipusam is celebrated in this temple. During which devotees take "Kavadi" to this temple and at that night, Theru (Temple Cart) with Lord Muruga in it is moved around the hill by people with the help of Chain. Kodumudi Temple. "Sthala Puranam (Mythology)" A well known divine story of the temple starts with the combat between Aathisesha and Vaayu (God of lie and element 'air'). This war pulses the holy Meru (Divine hill) and makes one Apex into five pieces, after  this war the five pieces of the apex changes into five Swayambulinga Sivasthalas. These are considered five types of precious stones as follows: Obligations for marriages, child birth, covers a maximum part of prarthana, nexly people those suffering from physical and mental diseases are strongly believing this sthala for their remedy. Festivals in this temple are in Chithirai, Aadi, Aavani, Aipasi, Karthikai, Markazhi, Thai, Maasi, Panguni of Tamil months. In addition to Aadipperukku where lighted lamps are set afloat in the river Cauvery. Kunchitapaada Natarajar has both his feet on the ground, in contrast to the raised left foot and  the lion faced pillars testify to Pallava contributions. Transport. The town has numerous modes of transport, such as the Private Mini Bus. Government run buses and private buses are adequate in Aalamarathumeydu (1.6 km) and Velayuthampalayam (3 km) from Thirukkattuthurai. Most of the people commute by bi-cycles or two wheeler motorcycles. By air. The nearest airport are in Tiruchirappalli (90 km) and Madurai (156 km). Major Airport are located at Coimbatore (112 km). By water. The nearest major sea port is at Cochin (259 km), Thoothukudi (365 km), and Chennai (353 km). Nearby railway stations. The nearby town Pugalur  (Code: PGR) has a railway station which is well connected to Erode, Coimbatore, Trichy, Chennai, Madurai, Tuticorin, Palakad, Thrisur, Ernakulum, Bangalore and Mysore. Both passenger trains and express trains pass through this station. This railway station is 5 km from Thirukkattuthurai. Totally 10 trains stops & passes through Pugalur railway station. Communication. BSNL, Aircel, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, Tata DoCoMo are the communication providers to this town. The well penetrated landline connections are provided by BSNL again. The availability of internet is mostly dial-up connection. Now BSNL has provided broadband internet connection. Post office nearby is Nadayanur Branch post office 2.5  km. Others are Velayuthampalayam Sub post office 3 km and other Sub post office at TNPL Kagithapuram. Nearby Head post office is in Paramathy Velur (Nammakkal District) 4 km from Thirukkattuthurai. Industries. Paper. Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd is promoted by the Government of Tamil Nadu with loan assistance from the World Bank. Today TNPL is the largest producer of bagasse (sugarcane waste from Sugar mills) based paper in the world and the second largest paper producer in Asia. TNPL produces 230,000 tons of printing and writing paper and consumes 1 million tonnes of bagasse every year. It is  located 4.5 kilometers from this village. Sugar. EID Parry India (pvt) Ltd has a sugar factory in Pugalur, about 8 kilometers away from this village. It has a capacity of 4000 TCD per year. It also has a 22 MW co-generation Power plant, with TNPL. Polling station. Panchayat Union Primary School, Thirukkattuthurai North facing remains as the polling station for this village and covers areas including Aalamarathumeydu, Karapalayam, Nadayanur and Kattipalayam. Tourism. Nearby tourist spot is Kolli hills in Namakkal district around 52 km from Thirukkattuthurai.Kolli Hills is known for its herbals and this place is untouched by  commercial tourism. Semmedu is headquarters of Kolli hills. It is about 1300m in height with 70 hair pin bends. Spots must be visited in Kolli hills are "Vasaloorpatty Boat House" in Solakkadu, "Botanical Garden" in Semmedu, "Masila Falls" also called as Akasa Gangai which forms river Aiyaru, "Arappaleeshwarar temple" and "Melkalingam Ettukaiamman Koil". Accommodations in Kolli hills are 1. Nallathambi Resorts at the highest point of hill 2. Arrow Mansion near semmedu bus stand 3. Wild Orchid Camp (earlier Kolli hills resort) near petrol bunk 4. PA Holiday Inn, semmedu