The modern Chittoor district was formerly
North Arcot District, which was established by the British in the 19th century. It had
Chittoor as its headquarters. Chittoor district was constituted on 1 April 1911 with the taluks of Chittoor, Palamaner, and Chandragiri from Old North Arcot district of Tamilnadu, Madanapalle and Voyalpadu Taluks of Kadapa district and Ex-Zamindari areas of Pileru,
Punganur, Srikalahasthi, Puttur and Old Karvetinagar estate. After the Indian independence in 1947, Chittoor region became a part of the erstwhile
Madras state. As a result of Pataskar Award consequent on the re-organisation of the state on a linguistic basis on 1 April 1960, a major portion of
Tiruthani taluk was transferred to
Chengalpattu district of Tamilnadu in exchange for one taluk known as
Sathyavedu comprising 186 villages from Tamilnadu. Also from the same date, 220 villages from Palamaner Taluk and three villages from Krishnagiri Taluk of Salem District of Tamilnadu were transferred to form
Kuppam Sub-Taluk and 145 villages from Chittoor Taluk were transferred to form Bangarupalem Sub-Taluk. Subsequently, Kuppam and Bangarupalem were made full-fledged taluks. The district was organised into 66 revenue mandals in 1985. Again the District Re-organised with 31 Mandals and 4 Revenue Divisions on 4 April 2022.
Annamayya district and
Tirupati district were formed from parts of the erstwhile Chittoor district and others. This has resulted in the district becoming primarily rural and losing central educational institutes and health infrastructure. This gives it a ranking of 47th in India (out of a total of
640) and 6th in its state. The major products contributing to the
GVA of the district from agriculture and allied services are,
sugarcane,
groundnut,
tomato,
mango,
milk,
meat and
fisheries. The
GVA to the industrial and service sector is contributed from
construction,
electricity,
manufacturing,
education and ownership of dwellings. Undivided Chittoor district receives an annual rainfall of 918.1 mm. The South West
Monsoon and North East Monsoon are the major sources of rainfall for the district. On average the district receives 438.0 mm of rainfall through the South West Monsoon (From June to September) and 396.0 mm from North East Monsoon (From October to December). The rainfall received by the district in the years 2002 and 2003 were 984.2 mm and 934 mm respectively. == Geography ==