Adoor


Adoor is one of the fastest growing towns in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, India. It is the headquarters of Adoor Thaluk and Adoor Revenue Division.
Adoor town comprises 28 wards of Adoor municipality. Adoor is one of the two revenue divisions of the Pathanamthitta district. The Adoor Revenue Division includes Kozhencherry, Konni, and Adoor Taluks. Adoor Taluk consists of two municipal towns: Adoor and Pandalam. The revenue division was previously located in the Kollam District. On 1 April 1990, Adoor was made municipality. Located between the major cities of Trivandrum and Kochi in south Kerala,. it is the hometown of former Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash. The Kerala Institute of Folklore and Folk Arts is situated in Adoor.

History

The history of Adoor is directly connected to the history of Kollam district. During the 1st century A.D, most of the places under Kollam district were ruled by Ay kingdom with their headquarters at south Travancore. It is known that in the rule of the Ay Kings, a Buddhist Monastery was there in Adoor. Some megalithic monuments like dolmens, dated back to Neolithic period have been discovered in the Enadimangalam village of Adoor Taluk.
Adoor was once part of Ilayidathu Dynasty and Pandalam dynasty. In 1741, Venad Maharaja Marthandavarma included Adoor to the Travancore Kingdom. King Marthandavarma once came to Adoor to hide from Ettuvettil Pillai and sought the help from Chittundayil house but it was refused and then support and shelter was provided by the grandmother of Nellimuttil family at Adoor, in the later days, after he became the King he then made revenge to the Chittundayil house and granted help to the Nellimuttil house. During the rule of Dharmaraja, a notable event was the battle against Tippu Sultan, where travancore made alliance with the East India Company. During the rule of Rani Gowri Parvathy Bayi, in 1812 A.D, pandalam was annexed to the kingdom of Travancore. The Anantharamapuram market situated at Parakkode is known to be one of the oldest, largest and busiest market during the Travancore era. After India got its independence in 1947, the Maharaja of Travancore refused to join Indian Union, but later had to agree. On 1 July 1949, Travancore and Cochin States were integrated and the Maharaja of Travancore became Rajpramukh of Travancore-Cochin State. On 1 November 1956, The State of Kerala was formed integrating the earlier regions of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar. After that, Adoor was in Kollam district until a new 13th district called, the Pathanamthitta District came into existence as a separate administrative unit on the 1 November 1982. The newly formed Adoor Taluk comprised nine Villages of Kunnathur Taluk and 2 villages of Mavelikkara Taluk of former Kollam and Alappuzha districts. On 1 April 1990, Adoor municipality came into existence and the area under Adoor municipality is presently known as the Adoor Town.
Adoor was part of Central Travancore and was never directly under British Rule. Adoor was a major town of wealthy Hindu families and notable Saint Thomas Christian families. Adoor was never captured by King Marthanadavarma.
In 1914, the first school to be opened in Adoor was Adoor Malayalam School also known as present-day Adoor govt UP School.
In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi visited Adoor and laid the foundation stone of the present SNDP building situated near private bus stand. The message of khadi and charkha gained more attention during this time. It was during the 1940s, communism started emerging in Adoor. SNDP and NSS have given great contributions to the development of Adoor.
The Lord Ayyappa's famous Pandalam Palace is situated just 9 km away from Adoor. Adoor is at a distance of 90 km away from the Sabarimala Temple.

Geography

Adoor is located 44m above the sealevel and is situated in the south-western part of the Pathanamthitta district and also in the centre of South Kerala. Geographically, it is located between Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. Adoor thaluk shares its southwest borders with Kollam and Alappuzha districts.
The Adoor Thaluk has an area of 30,857 hectares, out of which 2082 hectares of land include Adoor town or urban area. The remaining 28,775 hectares belongs to rural area.
The landscape here consists of valleys, slopes and plains. The main soil types in this area are sandy soil, gravel soil, shrimp, cut stone and earthen soils.
Kallada River passes through Enath and Mannadi. Adoor Valyathodu passes through the heart of the town.

Administration

Adoor is part of the Pathanamthitta district and is one of the two major revenue divisions of Pathanamthitta. Before the formation of the Pathanamthitta district in 1982, Adoor belonged to the Kollam district. Adoor's Assembly Constituency is a part of the newly formed Pathanamthitta Loksabha with the present MP being Shri Anto Antony. The present MLA of Adoor is Shri Chittayam Gopakumar. Adoor municipality is divided into 28 wards.

Administrative divisions

Municipality Wards{{Cite web|url=http://www.adoormunicipality.in/council|title=കൌണ്‍സില്‍ Adoor Municipality|website=www.adoormunicipality.in|access-date=2020-04-20}}

Panchayaths under Adoor Thaluk{{Cite web|title=Subdivisions Taluks and Villages Pathanamthitta District, Government of Kerala India|url=https://pathanamthitta.nic.in/subdivisions-taluks-and-villages/|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-22}}

Art

Adoor is famous for its contributions to arts and culture, as well as for being the birthplace of many well-known personalities. Adoor Bhasi, Adoor Bhavani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Adoor Pankajam, Adoor Govindankutty, Naveen Bhaskar have given their remarkable contributions to the Malayalam film industry. The Kerala Institute of Folklore and Folk Arts is situated in Adoor.
Popular events in Adoor include Thrichendagamagalem Mahadevar Temple Kettukazcha ulsavam, Gajamela at Sree Parthasarathy Temple, Ecumenical Conventions of Christian churches, Ezhamkulam Thookkam in Ezhamkulam Devi Temple, Kalamala chandanakkudam is major festival of Muslims in central Travancore, Kodumon Chilanthy Temple, and others.
Adoor is famous for its contribution to Mollywood. Actors like Adoor bhasi, Adoor Pankajam, Adoor Bhavani, Film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Anchor Govindankutty, script writer Naveen Bhaskar have played significant roles in shaping today's Malayalam Film Industry. The 1998 mollywood movie Ilamura thammburan was shot at Adoor.

Demographics

census, Adoor town with an area of 2082 hectares and 7911 households has a population of 29,171 people, including NRI's. Out of which 13741 are males and 15430 are females. The population under the age of 6 is 2411. 3621 belong to Scheduled casts and 38 belong to Scheduled Tribe. The literacy rate of Adoor is 96.31%, which is higher than the state average of 94.00%. In Adoor, male literacy is 97.49%, while the female literacy rate is 95.27%. Adoor has a large population of NRI's, majority of them working in middle-east countries. Majority of the population are Hindus followed by Christians and Muslims. Adoor is a peaceful town with people from all religions living in harmony
With an area of 30,857 hectares, the total population of Adoor Thaluk is 3,02,936 with 141233 males, 161703 females. Nearly 90% of the population resides in rural regions and only 10% resides in the urban area.

Climate

Adoor is one of the places in Kerala that receives the heaviest rain. The summer season and rainy season occurs from April to July. The month of July receives a significant amount of rainfall of about. Humidity increases in the months of April and June. The winter season normally lasts from October to January. Slight mist and fog is sometimes present in Adoor. Moderate temperatures occur from February and March.

Crops

The Kerala State Seedfarm at Moonnalam established in 1960, has 10.25 ha of land and mainly deals with the cultivation of rice. The soil in Adoor is sandy, clay, loam and is very strongly acidic in nature. The minerals from rivers Achancovil, Kallada make the soil good for cultivation. Adoor is one of the biggest producers of high quality Rubber, coconuts, bananas, and tapioca. Mousambi is also grown here, and so is red coconut and red banana, sugarcane, ginger, turmeric, various vegetables and tubers.

Transportation

Road

Adoor is a junction with major roads connecting it to Ernakulam, Trivandrum, Kayankulam, Punalur, Pathanamthitta and Chavara. The only means of transport in Adoor is roadways. There are two bus stands in Adoor. KSRTC bus stand has got 24 hours bus services with daily interstate, interdistrict and town connectivity. The municipal bus stand near bypass stations all private busses.
KSRTC provide services to nearby states of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Major services include super delux, superfast and fast passengers to Mangalore, Manippal, Marthandam, Thalakkulam, Sulthan Batheri, Perikkalur, Kannur, Udayagiri, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Trivandrum.
Bus services from other depots towards Bangalore, Sulliya, Batheri, Thenkasi, Pazhani are also available.
Private bus service like Kallada, Kerala Lines, and Rukma have daily services towards Bangalore, Chennai, and other destinations from Adoor.
Being the centre of southern Kerala, Adoor has good highways and modern roads for travel and the shipment of goods. Adoor has the MC road passing through it until Trivandrum and the National Highway 183A passing through Adoor connecting Pathanamthitta and other major places. Built during the era of Travancore Dynasty, recently MC road from Kazhakoottam to Adoor was raised to the status of safety road. This is the first safety road project to be built in Kerala. Adoor bypass starts from Nellimutilpadi in Adoor, passes through Moonnalam and ends at Karuvatta in Adoor. The Kayamkulam-Punalur road also passes through Adoor making it the centre of Kayamkulam and Punalur. KP Road connects Adoor to various places like Charummood, Pathanapuram. People mostly use MC-Road in Adoor for travelling to Trivandrum rather than using National Highway 66 to avoid traffic jams. This makes the MC-Road the most popular route for travelling to Trivandrum. The National Highway 183, which Starts from Kollam, passes through Adoor and ends at Theni in Tamil Nadu. There are plans to bring ring roads within Adoor. The upcoming projects of renovating and expanding 110 crores Anayadi- Koodal road and 42crore Ezhamkulam - Kaipattoor road are under process.

Airports

The nearest airport is at Thiruvananthapuram-Thiruvananthapuram International Airport which is away. There are plans to build a new airport for the district near Sabarimala.

Railways

The nearest railway stations are Kayamkulam Junction Railway Station away, Chengannur Railway Station, Kottarakara railway station. A railway station was planned for Adoor but this plan was shifted to Mavelikkara. There are considerations about bringing a major junction railway station to Adoor. The proposed railway station will have railway flyovers and nearly eight tracks with lines Kayamkulam-Punalur via Adoor, Chengannur-Thiruvananthapuram via Adoor.

Education

Adoor Stadium

The demand for a sports stadium has been a decades long wish for the people at Adoor. An INR 15 crore stadium with international training facilities has been proposed.

Kodumon Stadium

The Kerala government's vision of having stadium of international facilities in every district has been a boost for the sport lovers. Another INR 15 crore stadium is under construction in the Kodumon Gramapanchayat of Adoor Thaluk. Expected to be completed in 2020, the stadium will be first in its class in Kerala. The under construction stadium is expected to have five line athletic running tracks and facilities for volleyball and football. Plans for an indoor stadium for badminton is also there.

Hospitals

Adoor is a holy town and is well known throughout Kerala. Adoor is home to many places, including the Mannadi Temple. There are several places of worship in Adoor.

Temples