Chamarajanagar or Chamarajanagara is the southernmost district in the state of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It was carved out of the original larger Mysore District in 1998.

Chamarajanagar Chamarajanagara is a city and headquarter of eponymous Chamarajanagar district in the Karnataka state of India. It is named after Chamaraja Wodeyar IX, the erstwhile Raja of Mysore, Chamarajanagara was previously known as 'Arikottara'. Hist ...

town is the headquarters of this district. It is the third least populous district in Karnataka (out of 30), after

Kodagu Kodagu district () (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative List of districts of Karnataka, district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State at which point it was merged ...

and Bangalore Rural.

History

Chamarajanagar was earlier known as Sri Arikottara. Chamaraja Wodeyar, the Wodeyar of Mysuru was born here and hence this place was renamed after him. The Vijaya Parsvanath Basadi, a holy Jain shrine was constructed by Punisadandanayaka, the commander of the Hoysala king Gangaraja in the year 1117 AD.

Geography

Being the southernmost district of

, Chamarajanagar district borders the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. Specifically, it borders

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

district of

to the west and north,

Mandya Mandya is a city in the state of Karnataka. It is the headquarter of Mandya district, Sugar factories contribute to the major economic output. It is also called Sugar City (Kannada: ''Sakkare Nagara'') because sugarcane is a major crop grown ...

and Ramanagara districts of Karnataka to the north-east,

Dharmapuri Dharmapuri is a city in the north western part of Tamil Nadu, India. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Dharmapuri district which is the first district created in Tamil Nadu after the independence of India by splitting it from ...

and

Krishnagiri Krishnagiri () is a city in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, and it serves as the administrative headquarters of Krishnagiri District formed in 2004. It is located at the bottom of Krishnadevaraya Hills, and the town is fully surrounded by hill r ...

districts of Tamil Nadu to the east, Salem to south-east,

Erode Erode (; īrōṭu), is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Kaveri river and is surrounded by the Western Ghats. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in Tamil Nadu. It is the administrativ ...

districts and

Nilgiris district The Nīlgiris district is one of the 38 List of districts of Tamil Nadu, districts in the South India, southern Indian States and union territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. Nilgiri () is the name given to a range of mountains spread acro ...

of Tamil Nadu to the south, and to the extreme south-west, there is a very small border with

Wayanad Wayanad () is a district in the north-east of the Indian state of Kerala, with its administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, ...

district of Kerala. Most of the district lies in the leeward region of the Nilgiris and consists of mainly semi-arid rain-dependent flatlands along with forested hills.

Economy

The Karnataka state government has started a Rs.400 crore project on 1`,595 acres of land called Badanaguppe-Kellamballi Industrial Estate which will include sectors like automobile, food processing, textiles, leather, granite and agriculture related industries.

Roads

Three national highways of India pass through Chamarajanagara district namely NH-766, NH-181, and NH-948. Some state highways of Karnataka pass through this district. National Highway 948 ( previously NH 209), which starts from Bengaluru in Karnataka state and ends at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, passes through the following places namely Kanakapura, Malavalli,

Kollegal Kollegal (or Kollegala) is the Major taluk in the Chamarajanagara District of Karnataka State in the south of India. Kollegala is well known for its silk industry which attracts traders from all over the state. History Until 1956, Kollegala ...

, Punajanur and enters Tamil Nadu. It further goes to Hasanur, Dhimbam ghat, Thalamalai, Bannari, Satyamangalam, Puliampatti,

Annur Annur is a town Panchayat and Taluk headquarters of Annur Taluk of the Coimbatore district. It is a suburb of Coimbatore located north-east about from the center of the city. The nearest airport is Coimbatore International Airport, which is ...

ends at Coimbatore. Few KSRTC buses run on NH 948. There are many roads from Chamarajanagara district to neighbouring Tamil Nnadu state. One road connects

to Hasanur via Dhondenling and Germalam. There is a Buddhist monastery at Dhondeling. Another road connects

a to Anthiyur via Hanur, Ramapura, Burgur and Moongilpalya. The road from Kollegala to

Mettur Mettur is an industrial and tourist town located in the Salem district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is best known for the Mettur Dam which is the largest dam in south India. Mettur is also known for its power generation, chemical man ...

goes through Hanur Kowdalli( Cowdalli), Male Mahadeshwara Betta (MM Hills), Palar, Govindapadi, Kaveripuram and Kolathur. The above-mentioned three roads pass through forest teeming with wild animals, including elephants, Indian Bison, leopards and tigers. These roads are isolated and narrow at many stretches without any human habitation or cellular phone signals. National Highway 181 connects Gundlupete town of Chamarajanagara district with

Ooty Ooty (; officially Udagamandalam (), Anglicisation, anglicized: Ootacamund , abbreviated as Udagai, ) is a town and municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north ...

via Bandipura and Gudalur. National Highway 766 connects Gundlupete with Kalpetta via Mulehole and Sulthan Bathery. The national highways 181 and 766 are closed for private vehicles at night in stretch between Gundlupete and neighbouring states.. Only state government buses are allowed at night in these section of highway.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Chamarajanagar district has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,020,791, roughly equal to the nation of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

or the US state of

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. This gives it a ranking of 441st in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 5.75%. Chamarajanagar has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 989

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 61.43%. 17.14% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 25.42% and 11.78% of the population respectively. The district has a high percentage of Scheduled Castes, with a population of 259,000, making up a quarter of the district's population. Having a large percentage of forest cover the district also has a high population of tribals, mostly the Nayakas but also forest tribes like the Soligas,

Yerava The Ravula (Adyar in Malayalam, Yerava in Kannada) are a tribal community or indigenous community in Karnataka and Kerala. Their common language is known as the Ravula language. They live predominantly the Kodagu district of Karnataka along wi ...

s, Jenu Kurubas and Betta Kurubas. These tribals have their own languages and their total population is around 120,000, and make up 12% of the district population. Other communities include Lingayats, Muslims and Vokkaligas. At the time of the 2011 census, 86.10% of the population spoke

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

, 4.58%

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, 4.42%

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and 3.29% Telugu as their first language.

Crime

Since much of the southern area of the district is dense forest, it provided good refuge to the notorious bandit Veerappan, responsible for the death of over a hundred policemen in both states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He was shot dead in an encounter with the specially formed Special Task Force (STF) on 18 October 2004, in

district, Tamil Nadu. He had been on the run for over two decades. The presence of illegal quarrying for black stone imposes a great threat to the forests in the region.

Tourist attractions

The main tourist attractions are Sri Chamarajeshwara temple in

, Biligiriranga Hills, K Gudi, Male Mahadeshwara Hills, Gundal dam, Suvarnavati Dam, Hogenakal Falls, Shivasamudram,

Bandipur National Park Bandipur National Park is a national park covering in Chamarajnagar district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It was established as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1973. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve since 1986. Histor ...

, and Gopalaswamy Hills in Gundlupet.

Villages

* Cheluvanahalli

Notable people

* Samsa - first historical playwright in Modern Kannada * B. Rachaiah - politician * B. S. Madhava Rao - mathematical physicist * Nanjaiah Honganuru - noted folklorist and writer * Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy - poet * R. Dhruvanarayana - politician * C. Puttarangashetty - politician * S. Mahendar - filmmaker *

Avinash Avinash may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Avinash'' (film), a 1986 Indian Hindi-language film * Tiger (YRF Spy Universe) (Avinash Singh Rathore), fictional agent in the ''Tiger'' franchise of the YRF Spy Universe People * Avinash Sachde ...

- actor * S.M. Siddaiah - lawyer and politician * Srinivasa Prasad - politician * veerappan - indian bandit and smuggler

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamarajanagar District Districts of Karnataka 1998 establishments in Karnataka