Kanhangad is a town and a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Kasaragod district

Kasaragod district

Kasaragod District is one of the districts of the Indian state of Kerala. Kasaragod District was organised as a separate district on 24 May 1984...

 in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

. It is 28 km from the district headquarters of Kasaragod. Bekal Fort

Bekal Fort

'Bekal Fort' is the largest fort in Kasargod, Kerala, India, spreading over . An important features of this fort are the water-tank with its flight of steps, the tunnel opening towards the south, the magazine for keeping ammunition and the broad and wide steps leading to the Observation Tower...

 is a 300-year old fort, one of the largest and best preserved forts in Kerala and lies 10 km north of Kanhangad. The fort is believed to have been built by Ikkeri Shivappa Nayaka. A Hanuman temple is located at the entrance of the fort. The construction resembles the Portuguese fort at Kannur St.Angelo's Fort.

Demographics

India census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Kanhangad had a population of 65,499. Males constitute 48% of the population and females 52%. Kanhangad has an average literacy rate of 78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 83%, and female literacy is 74%. In Kanhangad, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age. The most widely spoken language is Malayalam. Other prominent languages spoken by communities living here include Konkani

Konkani language

KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...

, Tulu

Tulu language

The Tulu language |?]]]) is a Dravidian language spoken by 1.95 million native speakers mainly in the southwest part of Indian state Karnataka known as Tulu Nadu. In India, 1.72 million people speak it as their mother tongue , increased by 10 percent over the 1991 census...

 and Kannada. A large GSB Brahmin community (who speaks Konkani) lives here. The famous Gowda Saraswat Brahmin temple, Lakshmi Venkatesh temple (LV temple) is situated in kanhangad. There is also a small Palghat Iyer

Iyer

Iyer is the title given to the caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara...

 Brahmin community which speaks a mix of Malayalam and Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

.

Economy

Agriculture and fishing are the primary source of income for residents of the region. The soil and topography allow for a diverse selection of crops. Rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

, pepper

Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...

, cashew

Cashew

The cashew is a tree in the family Anacardiaceae. Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú. It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew nuts and cashew apples.-Etymology:The...

 and ginger

Ginger

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....

 are the important crops that are grown in the eastern part of the region, which comprises forests and hilly areas. In the coastal areas, coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

, paddy

Paddy

Paddy may refer to:*Paddy , a World War II carrier pigeon*Paddy , a comic strip*Paddy field, a type of cultivated land*Paddy Whiskey, a liquor*Patrick , including people with the name*Padraic, including people with the name...

 and tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

are cultivated.

Since the oil boom of the 80’s, young people have migrated to the oil producing Gulf countries in pursuit of lucrative job opportunities. This has considerably changed the economic situation and life style of the residents. Many families depend on money sent by family members working in the Gulf and other regions.

Climate

The southwest monsoon starts towards the end of May or the beginning of June, heralded by thunderstorms and prevails until September when the rain fades out. October brings the northeast monsoon. Dry weather sets in by the end of December. January and February are the coolest months of the year. March, April and May are very hot.