VIZAGAPATAM, a town and district of British India, in the Madras presidency. The town stretches along the coast, and has a station on a short branch of the East Coast railway, m. N.E. of Madras. Pop. (1931) 57,303. It lies on a small bay. The town or fort, as it is called, is separated from the southern promontory, the Dolphin's Nose, by a small river, which forms a bar where it enters the sea. The port is growing in importance, as the only protected harbour on the coast, though large vessels have to lie r m. off shore. A harbour was in course of construc tion in 1929. It will be developed by the Bengal-Nagpur rail way company, under government control, to supply an outlet for the fertile east coast area. An English factory was estab lished here early in the 17th century, which was captured by the French in 1757, but shortly afterwards recovered. The town owes much to the munificence of the neighbouring raja of Vizianagram. A water supply has been provided. Waltair at the north end of the bay is the European quarter and a health resort. The exports by sea include manganese ore, ground nuts and sugar.
The DISTRICT OF VIZAGAPATAM has an area of 4,575 square miles. It is a picturesque and hilly country, but for the most part unhealthy. The main portion is occupied by the
Eastern Ghats, whose slopes are clothed with luxuriant vegeta tion and forest trees. The drainage on the east is carried by numerous streams direct to the sea, and that to the west flows into the Godavari through the Indravati or through the Sabari and Siller rivers. To the west of the range is situated the greater portion of the extensive zamindari of Jaipur, which is for the most part very hilly and jungly. In the extreme north a remark able mass of hills, called the Nimgiris, rise to a height of 5,000 ft. There are great varieties of climate. The average annual rain fall at Vizagapatam exceeds 4o inches. Pop. (1931) 2,442,950. The principal crops are rice, millets, pulses and oil-seeds, with some sugar-cane, cotton, spices and tobacco. Manganese is largely mined, and a little bauxite worked.
On the dissolution of the Mogul empire Vizagapatam formed part of the territory known as the Northern Circars, which were ceded to the East India Company by treaties in 1765 and 1766. The Agency, a hilly inland tract which formed more than two thirds of the district, has recently been incorporated with the agencies of Ganjam and Godavari into a new division.