PULICAT, a town of British India, in Chingleput district, Madras, 25 m. N. of Madras city. Pop. (1901), 5448. The Dutch built a fort here as early as 1609, and it was for a long time their chief settlement on the Coromandel coast. Repeatedly captured, it did not finally become British until 1825. It gives its name to the Pulicat lake, a shallow lagoon stretching for about 37 m. along the coast. The seaward side is formed by the island of Sriharikot, which supplies firewood to Madras city.