Salem, Tamil Nadu Salem, Tamil Nadu Salem () is a city in Salem district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located about northeast of Coimbatore, southeast of Karnataka state capital Bangalore and about southwest of the state capital, Chennai. Salem is the fifth largest city in Tamil Nadu by population and covers . The town and the surrounding hilly regions were part of the Chera dynasty and was part of the trade route with the Roman empire. It was later governed by Poligars, who built temples and forts in and around the city. It was part of the Vijayanagara empire
Tamil Nadu state has 17,000 hectares of land under oil palm cultivation, the second highest in India. Dr M.S. Swaminathan, known as the "father of the Indian Green Revolution" was from Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University with its seven colleges and thirty two research stations spread over the entire state contributes to evolving new crop varieties and technologies and disseminating through various extension agencies. Among states in India, Tamil Nadu is one of the leaders in livestock, poultry and fisheries production. Tamil Nadu had the second largest number of poultry amongst all the states and accounted for 17.7 per cent of