Puducherry (Tamil: புதுச்சேரி Putuccēri; French: Poudouchéry), formerly known as Pondicherry (and still nicknamed Pondy), is a Union Territory of India. It is a former French colony, consisting of four non-contiguous enclaves, or regions, and named after the largest region, Pondicherry. The territory was officially known as Pondicherry until 2006 when it was renamed Puducherry.[1][2] Of late, Pondicherry is also considered an educational hub of southern India, having 1 national institute of technology, 1 central university, 8 medical colleges, 10 engineering colleges, 3 dental colleges, 2 law colleges, 1 veterinary college, 1 agricultural college, 10 arts and science colleges, and 5 polytechnic colleges functioning within its territory. Many medical and engineering colleges including a state-owned university are also reported to be in queue. People of Pondicherry are demanding statehood for Pondicherry and are also requesting to add neighboring villages from Tamil Nadu to newly form Greater Pondicherry state for better administration and development purposes.The name Puducherry (புதுச்சேரி) means New Hamlet in Tamil, the local language. During the colonial period the name was changed to Pondicherry. Pondicherry was widely used for a long time to refer to the region. In 2006, the name for the state and the capital city officially reverted to Puducherry.
During ancient times, it is known as Poduke or Podukai. Ancient Greeks referred to this place as Poduke and Aryans referred as Vedapuri.Pondicherry consists of four non-contiguous regions: Pondicherry, Karaikal, and Yanam on the Bay of Bengal and Mahé on the Arabian Sea. Pondicherry and Karaikal are by far the larger ones, and are both enclaves of Tamil Nadu. Yanam and Mahé are enclaves of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, respectively.
The territory has a total area of 492 km2 (190 sq mi): Puducherry 293 km2 (113 sq mi), Karaikal 160 km2 (62 sq mi), Mahé 9 km2 (3.5 sq mi) and Yanam 30 km2 (12 sq mi). It has 900,000 inhabitants (2001). Greater Pondicherry Movement which is recently formed is demanding of unification of neighbouring villages from Tamil Nadu to make Pondicherry region contiguous and larger in area to form the Pondicherry State, which would increase the area of the Pondicherry region from 293 km2 (113 sq mi) to 510 km2 (200 sq mi).
Pondicherry is little away from Chennai in the east coast, and east coast is having continuous stretch of mangroves. The main river in Pondicherry is the Gingee (Sankarabarani river), believed originate from Gingee. It bifurcates into the Ariyankuppam and Chunnambar rivers. Maximum mangrove vegetation is found in Ariyankuppam river banks toward the estuary. In the Karaikal region, the mangrove vegetation is found distributed in Kizhvanjur estuary and Arasalaar estuary near the lighthouse. Most of the plants growing in the lighthouse region backwaters were planted by artificial plantation.
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