The geography of Tamil Nadu is bestowed with the abundance of nature. It has forests, hills, valleys, sanctuaries, river beds, and of course the seas and oceans, which together make for a wonderful nature trail to this state.

The geography of Tamil Nadu is spread across an area of 130,058 sq km. The state of Tamil Nadu is rinsed by the Bay of Bengal in the east, and by Indian Ocean in the south. The coastal state of Tamil Nadu shares its borders with Karnataka in the north-west, Andhra Pradesh in the north, and Kerala in the west. Tamil Nadu has 1000km of coastline, which was witness to the devastating tsunami attacks in 2004.

Tamil Nadu is the 11th largest state of India. The Point Calimere and Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary forms the eastern and western tips of the state. The north tip is Pulicat Lake, and the southernmost tip for the state and for India too is Kanyakumai or the Cape Comorin, where the three seas merge.

The state experiences two monsoon periods- the advancing monsoon period or the south-west monsoon, which takes place from June to September, and the north-eastern monsoon, which the state experiences from October to December. The dry season lasts from January to May. However, as the state is greatly dependent on monsoons, a monsoon failure often leads to drought conditions. The geography of Tamil Nadu is demarcated into seven agro-climatic zones, which are north-west, north-east, southern, high rainfall, west, high altitude hilly, and Cauvery Delta. The last of the agro-climatic region is the most fertile agricultural zone of the state. The climate of the state varies from dry sub-humid to semi-arid.

The rocky hills of the Eastern Ghats and the hills of the Western Ghats receive plenty of rainfall and hence the valleys of Cumbum and Pollachi have most of the tea, coffee and spices plantations. The upper end of the Eastern Ghats- the Yercaud in the Sherveroy Hills- have banana and coffee plantations and fruit orchards.

Cauvery is the main river of the state and the irrigation of the Coromandel plains is done through the help of this river, and hence the delta regions of the Thanjavur and the Nagapattinam are known to be the granary of Tamil Nadu. The other rivers of the state are Palar, Pennar, Tamiraparani and Vaigai.

The coastal areas of Tamil Nadu has Coromandel Coast in the north and the Fisheries Coast in the South. There are mangrove forests at Pichavaram and bird sanctuaries at Vendanthangal and Pulicat Lake. The Fisheries Coast was once famous for its pearls and it has also the most important pilgrim centers in India.

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