Chamarajanagar is the southernmost district in the state of Karnataka, India. It was carved out of the original larger Mysore District in the year 1998. Chamarajanagar town is the headquarters of this district. It is the third least populous district in Karnataka, after Kodagu and Bangalore Rural.
History
Chamarajanagar was earlier known as Sri Arikottara. Chamaraja Wodeyar, the Wodeyar king 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 Karnataka, Chamarajanagar district borders the state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Specifically, it borders Mysore district of Karnataka to the west and north, Mandya and Ramanagaradistricts of Karnataka to the north-east, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiridistricts of Tamil Nadu to the east, Salem and Erode districts of Tamil Nadu to the south-east, Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu to the south, and to the extreme south-west, there is a very small border with Wayanad 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. National Highway 209, which starts from Bengaluru in Karnataka and ends at NH-7 north of Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, passes through the district at Kollegal and ends up at Punajur, in the western ghats near the Tamil Nadu - Karnataka border.
Demographics
According to the 2011 census Chamarajanagar district has a population of 1,020,791, roughly equal to the nation of Cyprus or the US state of Montana. This gives it a ranking of 441st in India. The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 5.75%. Chamarajanagar has a sex ratio of 989 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 61.43%. 86.11% of the population speaks Kannada, 4.58% Tamil, 4.42% Urdu and 3.29% Telugu. 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 forest-dwelling tribals, like the Soligas, Yeravas, 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.
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. He was shot dead in an encounter with the specially formed Special Task Force on 18 October 2004, in Dharmapuri 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.
