coimbatore district was one of the districts of the erstwhile madras presidency of british india. it covered the areas of the present-day districts of coimbatore, erode and tirupur and the kollegal taluk of present-day karnataka. it covered a total area of 20,400 square kilometres (7,860 sq mi) and was sub-divided into 10 taluks. the administrative headquarters was coimbatore city. most of coimbatore's inhabitants were tamil-speaking but there were also large numbers of malayalam, telugu and kannada speaking people.