Chamarajanagar or Chamarajanagara is the southernmost district in the state of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It was carved out of the original larger

Mysore District Mysore district, officially Mysuru district is an administrative district located in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Mysore division.Chamarajanagar District was carved out of the origi ...

in 1998. Chamarajanagar town is the headquarters of this district. It is the third least populous district in Karnataka (out of 30), after

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

and

Bangalore Rural Bangalore Rural district, is one of the 31 districts in Karnataka, India. It was formed in 1986, when Bangalore District was divided into Bangalore Rural and Bangalore Urban. Presently in Bangalore Rural district, there are 1 division, 4 talu ...

History

Chamarajanagar was earlier known as Sri Arikottara.

Chamaraja Wodeyar Chamarajendra Wadiyar X (22 February 1863 – 28 December 1894) was the twenty-third Maharaja of Mysore between 1868 and 1894. Adoption and accession Chamarajendra Wadiyar X was born in the old palace in Mysore on 22 February 1863, as the thi ...

, 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 a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a 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 regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Specifically, it borders

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

district of

to the west and north,

Mandya Mandya is a city in the state of Karnataka. It is the headquarter of Mandya district and is located from Mysore and from Bangalore. Sugar factories contribute to the major economic output. It is also called Sugar city (which in Kannada mean ...

and

Ramanagara Ramanagara is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is also the headquarters of Ramanagara district. It is approximately 50 kilometres from Bangalore. There are buses and trains as public transportations which approximately takes 90 minute ...

districts of Karnataka to the north-east,

Dharmapuri Dharmapuri is a special grade town 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 spli ...

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 ...

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

Erode Erode () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in the state, after Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruppur and Salem. It is also the administrative headquarters of the ...

districts and

Nilgiris district The Nilgiris district () is one of the 38 districts in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Nilgiri ( en, Blue Mountains) is the name given to a range of mountains spread across the borders among the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Ker ...

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 Indian state Kerala with administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, the southern ...

district of Kerala. Most of the district lies in the leeward region of the

Nilgiris The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, and eastern Kerala in India. They are located at the trijunction of three states and connect the Western Ghats with the Eastern Ghats. At le ...

and consists of mainly semi-arid rain-dependent flatlands along with forested hills.

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 Kanakapura is a town in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka on the banks of the Arkavathi river and the administrative center of the taluk of the same name. Previously belonged to Bangalore Rural District. It was formerly the largest constit ...

, Malavalli,

Kollegal Kollegal is one of the major taluks in the Chamarajanagara District of Karnataka State in the south of India. It is also the largest taluk in Karnataka, Kollegal is well known for its silk industry which attracts traders from all over the stat ...

, Chamarajanagar, Punajanur and enters Tamil Nadu.It further goes to Hasanur, Dhimbam ghat,Thalamalai,

Bannari {{Infobox settlement , name = Bannari , other_name = , type = village , image_skyline = Bannari range.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = Bannari plains seen fro ...

Satyamangalam Sathyamangalam (also known as Sathy) is a town and municipality in Erode district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. 8 th century Town. It lies on the banks of the River Bhavani, a tributary of the River Cauvery in the foothills of the West ...

, Pullampatti, Annur ends at Coimbatore. Few KSRTC buses run on NH 948. There are many roads from Chamarajanagara district to neighbouring taminadu 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 Hanur is a town in Chamrajnagar district of Karnataka State, India. Economy Hanur is a commercial centre for many nearby villages like Ramapura, Lokkanahalli, Bylore, Odeyarpalya, Martalli, Ajjipura, Bandalli, Cowdalli, Mangala, Kamagere, ...

, Ramapura, Burgur and Moongilpalya. The road from Kollegala to Mettur 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 known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

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 typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

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

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

or the US state of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. This gives it a ranking of 441st in India (out of a total of 640). 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. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

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

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as 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. Many species d ...

of 989

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 61.43%. 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, Yeravas, Jenu Kurubas and

Betta Kuruba Kuruba is a Hindu caste native to the Indian state of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They are the third-largest caste group in Karnataka. Traditionally, they were agriculturalists and cattle farmers. The origins of kuruba i ...

s. 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 (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, 4.58% Tamil, 4.42%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' 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 Koose Munisamy Veerappan (18 January 1952 – 18 October 2004) was an Indian bandit turned domestic terrorist who was active for 36 years, and kidnapped major politicians for ransom. He was charged with sandalwood smuggling and poaching o ...

, 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 Chamarajanagar,

Biligiriranga Hills The Biligirirangana Hills or Biligirirangan Hills (as referred to in biology and geology) is a hill range situated in south-western Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu (Erode District) in South India. The area is called Biligiri Ranganatha ...

, K Gudi, Male Mahadeshwara Hills, Gundal dam, Suvarnavati dam, Hogenakal Falls, Shivasamudram, Bandipur national park, Gopalaswamy Hills in Gundlupet and many.

Notable people

Dr.Rajkumar Singanalluru Puttaswamaiah Muthuraj (24 April 1929 – 12 April 2006), better known by his stage name Dr. Rajkumar, was an Indian actor and singer who worked in Kannada cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of Cinema of ...

- actor * Samsa - first historical playwright in Modern Kannada * B. Rachaiah - politician *

B. S. Madhava Rao Bangalore Srinivasarao Madhava Rao (29 May 1900 – 11 June 1987) was an Indian mathematician and physicist who served as a professor of mathematics at Central College, Bangalore. He worked on mathematical physics and collaborated with Max Born ...

- mathematical physicist * Nanjaiah Honganuru - noted folklorist and writer * Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy - poet * R. Dhruvanarayana - politician *

S. Mahendar S. Mahendar is an Indian film director working in Kannada cinema. He is also a politician with the BJP contesting from Kollegal constituency in Karnataka. He debuted into cinema with ''Pranayada Pakshigalu'' (1992) and went to direct for over ...

- filmmaker * Avinash - actor * S.M. Siddaiah - lawyer and politician * Srinivasa Prasad - politician

References

External links

Official website

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