of 8.5 m above sea level. Whilst there was an early seawall made by the French government in 1735, this was not "hard structure coastal defense" so much as an adjunct to the old shipping pier and a transition from the beach to the city. Today, the seawall consists of rows of granite boulders reinforced every year in an attempt to stop erosion. As a consequence of the seawall, there is severe seabed erosion and turbulence at the coastal margin, resulting in an extreme loss of biodiversity within the critical intertidal zone. Whenever gaps appear as the stones fall into the continually eroding seabed, the government adds more boulders. Pondicherry's seawall has also caused beach erosion to migrate further up the coast, to the fishing villages in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu to the north of the city. Economy In 2012, the Ministry of Power inaugurated the "Smart Grid" project in Puducherry. Farming around Pondicherry includes crops such as rice, pulses, sugarcane, coconuts, and cotton. In 2016, the Pondicherry State Government Employees Central Federation presented a status paper on the fiscal and social crisis in Puducherry to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The report stated that a "combination of a staggering debt, stagnant tax revenues and rampant misappropriation of funds has throttled the economy of the Union Territory" and called for measures on a war footing to "deliver good governance and end corruption". Climate The climate of Pondicherry is classified by the Köppen climate classification as tropical wet and dry, similar to that of coastal Tamil Nadu. Summer lasts from April to early June, when maximum temperatures may reach . The average maximum temperature is . Minimum temperatures are in the order of . This is followed by a period of high humidity and occasional thundershowers from June until September. The northeast monsoon sets in during the middle of October, and Pondicherry gets the bulk of its annual rainfall during the period from October to December. The annual average rainfall is . Winters are very warm, with highs of and lows often dipping to around . Demographics According to the 2011 census of India, Pondicherry had a population of 244,377, with 124,947 females and 119,430 males. It had an average literacy rate of 80.6%, with male literacy at 84.6% and female literacy at 76.7%. Ten percent of the population was under six years of age. The majority of people in Pondicherry