Kottayam district has a total area of 2208 sq. km. lying a little south to central Kerala, the district is bordered on the north by Ernakulam,   on the east by Idukki and on the south by  Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts. The Vembanad lake forms the western boundary. The district is naturally divided into high land, mid land and low land, the bulk being constituted by the mid land regions. Meenachil and Kanjirappally taluks have high land and mid land areas while Kottayam, Changanassery and Vaikkom taluks have mid land and low land areas. Kanjirappally and Meenachil taluks have laterite soil, where as  Vaikom taluk and part of Changanassery and Kottayam taluks have aluvial soil. The district has no coastal area. Kottayam lies between Latitude 9⁰ 15' and 10⁰ 21' and Longitude 76⁰ 22' and 77⁰ 25'.

        Classification of Geographical area (1998 -99, in Hec.). Total 219550, forests 8141, land put to non agricultural uses 23077, barren and uncultivable land 1376, permanent pastural and other grazing land two, land under tree crops 129, cultivable waste 1874, fallow other than current fallow 2625, current fallow 4924, net area sown 177409, area sown more than once 39382, total cropped area 216784.

Climate

       The district has a tropical climate with an oppressive hot season in the plains and plenty of rain fall through out. The hot season from March to May, is followed by the south west monsoon from June to September. October and November constitute the post-monsoon or retreating monsoon season, when day temperature increases gradually and the heat is nearly as in summer. December to February forms the north east monsoon. Rain cease early in January. The district normally gets an annual average rain fall of 3130.33 mm.

Month	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV	DEC
Rain fall in mm	6.9	5.7	50.3	183	532	620.6	503	233.4	105.3	615.9	92.2	8.8

Rivers

       The important rivers of  the district are the Meenachil, the Muvattupuzha and the Manimala. The 78 kms. long Meenachil river flows through the taluks of Meenachil, Vaikom and Kottayam. It has a catchment area of 1272 Sq.km. and utilisable water resource of 1110 Cubic mm. The river is formed by several streams originating from the Western Ghats in Idukki district. At Erattupetta, Poonjar river also joins it, takes a sharp turn and flows  towards the west. At Kondur, it is joined by the Chittar and at Lalam, it receives the Payapparathodu and flows in a south-west direction till it reaches Kottayam. Here, it branches into several streams before emptying into the Vembanad lake. The important towns in the basin are  Pala, Poonjar, Ettumanoor and Kottayam. Meenachil Medium Irrigation project is having a net ayacut of 9960 hectares, 155 sq.km. catchment area and a water spread area of 228 hectares.

The Muvattupuzha river originates from Ernakulam district, flows through Vaikom taluk and empties into the Vembanad lake. The most important town in the basin is Vaikom, the famous pilgrim centre.

The Manimala river flows through Kanjirappally and Changanassery taluks. The Chittar joins it on its course further down the west as it flows to Alappuzha district. The important town in the basin is Mundakkayam.