| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mahe is situated on the Malabar coast. The headquarter, Mahe town is on the estuary of the Mayyazhi River and arabian sea, which is situated on the West Coast of the Indian Peninsula, between Badagara and Thalassery. This region is entirely rain-fed and is covered by typical red laterite soil of Malabar There is no forest area in the region. Mahe is bounded on the south-west by the Arabian sea, on the north by river Ponniyar (Moolakadavu) and on the other sides by a stretch of calcareous hills of medium height which are linked to the ghats by a series of wooded hillocks. Mahe town lies south of River Mahe near its juncture with the sea |
| Border Districts | Kannoor and Kozhikkode |
| Latitude | 110 42′ To 110 43′ North |
| Longitude | 750 31′ To 750 33′ East |
| Rivers | Mayyazhi, Ponniyar |
| Climate | |
| This region situated on the west-coast of India as a humid and tropical climate, with oppressive hot season from March to May. The rainfall is plentiful during the south-west monsoon. The monsoons normally sets in by the end of May or early June and withdraws in early November. There is no real cool weather season. December to February however, is a period of relatively dry and cool weather. | |
| Rainfall | The average rainfall is 353cm. Most of this, about 80% occurs during June to September and about 10% during October to November. July is the rainiest month which alone accounts for about 3rd of the annual total rainfall. In a year there are about 120 rainy days, ie. days with rainfall about 2.5mm or more. |
| Temperature | Days are coolest during the south-west monsoon months from June to September when the mean maximum temperature is about 290C and the mean minimum about 240C from October. The day temperatures gradually increase till April when the mean maximum temperature reaches about 330C and the minimum is about 260C. April together with the part of May constitutes the hotest period of the year, when on individual days the temperature may go as high as 370C. Night tempratures start decreasing gradually from November and reach the lowest during January. The minimum temprature being about 220C. On individual days minimum temprature may fall as low as 160C after January. |
| Humidity | Humidity is very high throughout the year. relative humidity is more than 70% from April to November. During the remaining months also the relative humidity is over 60%. |
| Cloudiness | During the south-west mansoon season the sky is generally heavily clouded to overcast. While during april and May and in the months of retreting mansoon viz. October and November the sky is moderatory clouded. For the rest of the year sky is clear or lightly clouded. |
| Surface Winds | Generally moderate throught the year, winds blow usually from west to north to north-west in the mansoon months. In other seasons however, winds blow from north-east to east in the morning and from west to north-west in the evening |
| Special Phenomena | Storms and depressions forming in the Arabian sea during May affect the region and the neighborhood causing temporary advance or early onset of the south-west monsoon. Some of the storms originating in the Bay of Bengal travel across the peninsula in a weekend form and emerge outing to the Arabian sea and get revived there affecting this region. This storms and depressions occurring mainly during June to November cause the maintenance of the monsoon current over the region in associations with these systems thunder storms, heavy rain, and squalls are experienced, particularly during April to July and October to November. |
| Geology | |
The first systematic mapping and mineral investigation of Mahe was carried out in the year 1960. Geographically the area consist of the following formations:
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