LOCATION AND AREA

The district of Batticaloa occupies the central part of the Eastern Province. It covers land area of approximately 2854 square Km. and internal waterway of square of 229 square km. the district accounts for 3.8% of the countries total land area.

BOUNDARIES

North : Verugal Aru & Trincomalee District

East : Bay of Bangal(Sea)

South & South West : Ampara District

West & North West : Polonnaruwa District

 ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS

The District is divided into 14 Administrative Divisions (Divisional Secretariat Divisions) they are

PHYSICAL FEATURE

Batticaloa district is morphologically different and very important region in the eastern province of Srilanka. It has diverse of landforms spread on surface in varies scales such as islands, sandbars, marsh lands, undulating plains and plateau, hills, mountains, valleys in small scales. All the aspects of morphology give naturally beautiful landscape to Batticaloa district. Based on the morphological background, the relief of Batticaloa district can be classified into three major parts.

1. Coastal lowlands

2. Coastal Undulating plains

3. Coastal Uplands

Coastal lowland area is 5 meters in height above mean sea level and maximum elevation within the area is 15 meters in heartland of Batticaloa. The coastal undulating plain land is 5-50 meters in height above mean sea level. It is a peniplain, most of the lands are alluvial flat maximum elevation within the area 103 meters (334 feet) in height in kudumbimalai, koralaipattu south divisional secretariat division, the coastal upland area defines above 50 meters above sea level, it is divided into two phases such as western upland, and southwestern upland. The maximum elevation is 402 meters (1319 feet) within southwestern upland and in Thanthamalai, manmunai south west divisional secretariat division. Around 85 percentage of the land in Batticaloa district is covered by coastal lowland and undulating plains remain 15 percentage of the land representing upland. The major tanks both Unichchai and Rugam are located within two different valleys. Unnichchai valley joind with Batticaloa lagoon and Rugam vally joind with valaichchenai lagoon nearby Sittandy.

LAGOON

The lagoon which traverses through the District extends 73.5 Km from Verugal (in the north) to Batticaloa Town and also extends further from Batticaloa Town 35.2 Km to Thuraineelavanai (in the south)

Major part of the population is concentrated in the narrow strip between the sea and the lagoon. The western part of lagoon is sparsely populated and 90% of the paddy land are found in this area. Lagoon fishing takes important place as well as the coastal fishing. The lagoon is famous for its crabs and prawns.

CLIMATE & RAINFALL

Batticaloa  has  a  tropical  wet  and  dry  climate,  also      generically  referred to  as  'dry-monsoonal  climate'. Batticaloa's climate is temperate throughout the year. From March to May, the warmest time of the year, the maximum annual temperature averages around 32.1 degrees Celsius and the minimum annual temperature averages around 25.87 degrees Celsius. During the monsoon season from October to January heavy rains are recorded, with average temperature of 28.9 °C.  Annual rainfall in Batticaloa is 1,615.30 mm.

MINERAL RESOURCES

Unlike in the other district mineral resource available here are limited. Sea shell, pan grass, cane, and forest timber are mineral resources available.

POPULATION

The district has a population of 626,341 Density of population is 219 persons per square km in Batticaloa district. A high density of population exists at Eravur town DS division and lowest density of population is at koralai pattu south DS division. Major five groups divide the population. There are Tamils, Muslim,Burgers,Singhalese and Indian Tamils.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Major portion of the population is engaged in agriculture while the fishing occupies the second place in the social structure. Other occupations are industrial activities, business and employment in government, corporation and private establishments.

HEALTH

A teaching hospital (01) with necessary facilities and bed strength is at  Batticaloa town.in addition, Base hospitals (04) Divisional hospital type A (03), Divisional hospital type B (03), divisional hospital type C (11), PMCU type of hospitals (19) and Maternity home are functioning in the district for fulfill need of the people.

EDUCATION

A Student population of  127,502  attends 361  schools in the district There are 6,675  Teachers. The Eastern University and Open University are providing higher education in district. The Eastern university functioning with the faculties of Health care science, Agriculture, Science, Commerce & management, Arts & Culture and Vipulananda institute of esthetics studies. The college of education  at Thalankudha and Teachers training college at Batticaloa are providing teachers skills. The technical college at Manchanthoduwai, eastern technical institute and Vocational Training centers are providing technological skills trainings.

ECONOMY

The economy of the district is depending mostly on  Agriculture and Fishing. The district has about  32,000 Agriculture families and about 23,780 fishing families.

AGRICULTURE

There are about 189,318 (acre) of paddy land in the district. Between the normal seasons Maha    and yala inter seasonal cultivation called late maha (from February to May) is practiced by the farmers in some areas with the help of minor tanks.

Unichai,  Vahaneri,  Rugam,  Navagiri,  Thumankeny,Kaddumurivu,  Kithulwewa,  Pulugunawa  kulam, Kadukkamunai kulam, Meiyangal kulam and   Meiyangal kulam are some of the important major tanks that feed the paddy land of the district along with numerous minor tanks.

About 5,600 acres of highland and home gardens (including coconut) have been cultivated wide spread throughout the district. The coastal villages lying from kurukalmadam to kaluwanchikudy at Manmunai South & Eruvil Pattu DS division are popular for onion, chilies, betel and vegetable cultivation.

FISHING

Fishing is second only to the paddy cultivation. The encroachment of the sea into the lagoon thus forming a good fishing environment is estimated as 56km. The long sea coast with suitable bays at long intervals coupled with their rivers and the estuaries, the miles long lagoon and the innumerable tank and water holes provide ample scope for this industry. There are 23,780 fishing families, 85,522 fishing population, 13,907 sea fishermen,

11,551 lagoon fishermen and active fishermen 26,390 in Batticaloa district.

INDUSTRIES

Large numbers of industrial establishments are mainly situated in Batticaloa town and kattankudy. All these are on  small  scale  except  the  national  paper  corporation  at  valaichchenai  and  a  garment  factory  at Arayampathy, which are the large-scale factories.

Weaving, rice mile, pottery, mat weaving, coir and brick manufacturing are some, which play the main role in the industrial economy of the district. There is about 56 small industrial are functioni ng under the department o fsmall industries.

LIVE STOCK

Livestock is an important livelihood activity in the district. Neat cattle, Buffaloes, Goats and Chickens are major source of the activities. Net cattle 310,641, Buffaloes 93,232, Goats 121,368 and Chickens 547,844 are in the district. The milk production for the year 2020 was 5,342,695 litters.

HOUSING

There are about 140,526 permanent houses, 15,299 semi-Permanent houses, 13,212 Temporary houses are I the district. Many house programmes are implementing by the government for the improving the housing facilities to the district.

TOURISM

Batticaloa is most popular place for tourism since early centuries. There are many places in the Batticaloa to the foreign and local tourism. Lagoon (Batticaloa, Valaichchenai, and Panichchenkerney) sandy beaches (Pasikkuda, Kallady, Savukkady, Sallithivu and Panichchenkerny), Natural reserve forest park (Unnichchai, Kudumpimalai), Cultural places, (Kokadicholai, Thaanthondiswarar kovil, Amirthakali Mamankam kovil, Aeithyamalai church, Kattankudy Jumiul – Laffridin grant jummah mosque, mangalaramaya Viharai), Archeological site (Batticaloa Dutch fort).