Chikmagalur district

Etymology

Chikmagalur district gets its name from its headquarters of Chikmagalur town. It is alternatively spelt as Chikkamagaluru, also misspelt and mispronounced as Chikkamangaluru. Chikmagalur literally means "The town of the younger daughter" in the Kannada language. The town is said to have been given as a dowry to the younger daughter of Rukmangada, the legendary chief of Sakrepatna and hence the name.

History

Chikmagalur is the region where the Hoysala rulers started and spent the early days of their dynasty. According to a legend, it was at Sosevur, now identified with Angadi in Mudigere Taluk that Sala, the founder of the Hoysala dynasty, killed the legendary tiger, immortalised in the Hoysala crest. It is known that Veera Ballala II (1173 – 1220 CE), the great king of Hoysala empire, has built the Shri Mallikarjuna Swamy Temple at Yagati in Kadur Taluk and Amriteshwara temple at Amrithapura in Tarikere Taluk.

Coffee was introduced into India through the Chikmagalur district when the first coffee crop was grown in the baba budan giri range during 1670 AD. The saint Baba Budan on his pilgrimage to Mecca travelled through the seaport of Mocha, Yemen where he discovered coffee. To introduce its taste to India, he wrapped seven coffee beans around his belly and got them out of Arabia. On his return home, he planted the beans in the hills of Chikmagalur.

Geography

Chikmagalur, the headquarters of Chikmagalur district, is 251 km from the state capital of Bangalore, and is surrounded by the Chandra Drona hills and dense forests. The district is between 12° 54´ 42´´ and 13° 53´ 53´´ North latitude and between 75° 04´ 46´´ and 76° 21´ 50´´ east longitude. Its greatest length from east to west is about 138.4 kilometres and from north to south 88.5 kilometres. The district receives normal average rainfall of 1925 mm. The highest point in the district is Mullayanagiri, 1,926 m above sea level which is also the highest point in the state of Karnataka. 30% of the district (2108.62 km2) is covered with forests. The district borders Shimoga to the north, Davanagere to the north-east, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts to the east, Hassan to the south, Dakshina Kannada to the south-west and Udupi to the west.

Rivers (Mouth)

• Netravati (Arabian Sea)
• Bhadra (Tungabhadra)
• Tunga (Tungabhadra)
• Hemavathi (Kaveri)
• Vedavathi (Tungabhadra)
• Yagachi (Hemavathi)

Mountain Peaks

• Mullayyana Giri
• Kudremukha
• Kemmangundi Hill Station
• Devaramane betta
• Ettina Bhuja
• Unnamed peak at - Lesser known peak located in Kadur taluk between Shakunagiri and Hogarekhangiri, at an elevation, 1573 metres above MSL, overlooking Madagada Kere.

Climate and rainfall

Chikmagalur is a large district with its East-West dimension larger than its North-South. This vast area covers higher western ghats in the west to lower semi-arid plains in the east. Thus, evergreen forest, wet deciduous, dry deciduous and dry forests are all found in the district. Rainfall pattern follows West-East direction, with western portion receiving a whooping 5000mm rainfall annually and eastern portion receiving less than 1000mm. Kigga village in Sringeri taluk is the wettest place in the Chikmagalur district, as per Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre(KSNDMC).Daily temperature ranges between 18-32°celsius on any given day across the district. During summers the temperature reaches as high as 38-40°C and during winters there is high diurnal temperature variation as the night temperature dips below 10°C.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Chikmagalur district has a population of 1,137,961, roughly equal to the nation of Cyprus or the US state of Rhode Island.{{cite web |access-date=30 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019160532/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php |archive-date=19 October 2013}} This gives it a ranking of 408th in India (out of a total of 640). Chikmagalur has a sex ratio of 1005 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 79.24%. 21.05% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 22.29% and 3.95% of the population respectively.

Among taluks, Sringeri taluk has the least population whereas Chikmagalur taluk has the highest population.

At the time of the 2011 census, 72.74% of the population spoke Kannada, 7.39% Urdu, 5.52% Tulu, 3.75% Tamil, 2.79% Telugu, 2.47% Malayalam, 1.97% Lambadi and 1.30% Konkani as their first language.

Administration

Chikmagalur district falls under the Mysore Division of Karnataka. It is divided into two Revenue Sub-divisions, Chikmagalur Sub-Division and Tarikere Sub-Division. Chikmagalur Sub-Division comprises the taluks of Chikmagalur, Koppa, Mudigere and Sringeri whereas the Tarikere Sub-Division comprises the taluks of Tarikere, Kadur, Ajjampura and Narasimharajapura. The Deputy Commissioner (also the District Magistrate) is the functional head of the district. Each Sub-Division has Assistant Commissioners and each Taluk has Tahsildars who work under the control and supervision of the Deputy Commissioner.

Economy

Agriculture is the economical back bone of the Chikmagalur district with coffee cultivation forming the major part of it. Agricultural production in the district is spread over three seasons — namely Kharif, Rabi and Summer. Important crops grown are cereals, i.e. rice, ragi, jowar, maize and minor millets, pulses like red gram, horse gram, green gram, avrekai (Hyacinth Beans), black gram and Bengal gram. Oil seeds like groundnut, sesamum, sunflower, castor and commercial crops like sugarcane, cotton, and tobacco are also grown here.

Chikmagalur is the second largest coffee producing district, after Kodagu, and also the largest producer of Arabica Coffee in India. The Coffee Board located in Chikmagalur town is the government authority that oversees the production and marketing of coffee cultivated in the district. Coffee is cultivated in Chikmagalur district in an area of around 85,465 hectares with Arabica being the dominant variety grown in upper hills and Robusta being the major variety in the low level hills. There are around 15,000 coffee growers in this district with 96% of them being small growers with holdings of less than or equal to 4 hectares. The average production is 55,000 MT: 35,000 MT of Arabica and 20,000 MT of Robusta. The average productivity per hectare is 810 kg for Arabica and 1110 kg of Robusta, which are higher than the national average.

Industries

Chikmagalur district unfortunately has not made good progress in terms of Industrial Development. Inadequate infrastructure investors preferring non-industrial ventures over industrial ones are quoted as some of the reasons for the backwardness of Industrial Development in this district.

There is only one Large Scale industry in this district, i.e. M/s Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) in Kudremukh area of Mudigere Taluk. KIOCL was established in 1976 to develop the Kudremukh mine and to produce 7.5 million tonnes of concentrate per year. The facilities were commissioned in 1980 and the first shipment of concentrate was made in October 1981. A pelletisation plant with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per year was commissioned in 1987 for production of high quality blast furnace and direct reduction grade pellets for export. KIOCL received a massive setback when its mining licence expired and operations were stopped by the Supreme Court with effect from 31 December 2005. With many of the employees losing their jobs and the social backlash that may result thereof, efforts are being made to generate jobs for these workers in other areas.Faced with the threat of losing jobs due to impending closure of Kudremukh mines, the workers and management have appealed for allotting them an alternative mining site to eke out a living reports {{cite web|title=Workers, Management of Kudremukh mines seek alternative mine| author= PTI | url=http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=2072

There are two industrial estates in Chikmagalur district, one located near Chikmagalur town and the other near Birur in Kadur Taluk. The Chikmagalur Industrial Estate is spread over 13.20 acre of land where the one at Birur is spread over 11.1 acre. Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) is also developing an Industrial Area of over 145 acre near Amble village of Chikmagalur taluk.

Tourism

Hill stations in the district are: Kemmangundi, Kudremukh, Mullayanagiri, Baba Budan Giri also known as Datta Peeta, Deviramma Betta. Waterfalls are: Manikyadhara Falls, Kallathigiri Falls, Hebbe Falls, Shanti Falls, Shankar Falls, Hanumana Gundi Falls, Kadambi Falls, Sirimane Falls, Dabdabe Falls etc. Reservoirs and lakes are Bhadra Dam, Hirekolale lake, Ayyenkere lake etc.

Temple towns are Sringeri, Horanadu, Kalasa, Narasimharajapura, Amritapura etc.

Transport

Road

Chikmagalur district is known for not well maintained roads. The poor state of the roads has hampered development of this district to some extent; more so because of the absence of even a good rail network in this district. The total length of roads in this district is 7264 km. There are only three National Highways that pass through this district. The National Highway NH-69 (Bangalore to Honnavar) passes through the towns of Kadur, Tarikere and NH-173 passes through Kadur - Chikmagalur - Mudigere connecting Mangaluru via Charmadi ghat. There is a proposal to upgrade.

Rail

Chikmagalur, Kadur and Tarikere and Ajjampura taluks have railway lines passing through them. The total length of railway line passing through the district is 136 km. Birur Junction and Kadur Junction railway station are the two Railway Junctions in the District. A new railway line connecting Chikmagalur to the main HubliBangalore trunk line was newly inaugurated and the commencement of the new line connecting Chikmagalur to Sakleshpur on the BangaloreMangalore trunk line has already been started.

Air

Chikmagalur district has a small airport near Gowdanahalli village about 10 km from Chikmagalur town. Its suitable for small charted planes. Airports at Mangalore and Bangalore can be used as an alternative.

Education

According to 2011 census, the percentage literacy rate of Chikmagalur district is 79.25% with 85.41% of males and 73.16% of females being literate. The literacy rate of Chikmagalur is higher than the average literacy rate of Karnataka state which is 75.36%. Sringeri Taluk has the highest literacy rate of 92.68% and Kadur Taluk with 74.33% being the least literate one.

As of 2011, there are 13 degree colleges (with 4615 students) offering graduate education in Chikmagalur district which are affiliated to Kuvempu University. Chikmagalur taluk has the maximum 4 graduate colleges (with 1648 students) whereas kadur has 2 and Koppa, Mudigere, Narasimharajapura and Sringeri taluks have only 1 graduate college each.

;Primary and secondary education: As of 2001, there are 1620 primary schools (with 151,923 students) and 235 secondary schools (high schools with 34,607 students) in Chikmagalur district. Chikmagalur taluk with 414 primary schools (42,774 students) has the most primary schools with Sringeri Taluk having the fewest at 80 primary schools (5822 students). Kadur Taluk with 74 secondary schools (9990 students) has the most secondary schools with Sringeri Taluk having the fewest at 9 secondary schools (1492 students).

;Higher secondary education: As of 2001, there are 46 colleges (with 4711 students) offering Higher Secondary (Pre-University) education in Chikmagalur district. Kadur Taluk with 12 Higher-Secondary colleges (1324 students) has the most Higher-secondary colleges with Sringeri Taluk having the fewest, two Higher-secondary colleges (160 students).

;Technical education:

• Adichunchanagiri Institute of Technology Polytechnic, Chikmagalur
• DACG (GOVT) Polytechnic, Chikmagalur

Villages

• Bisalehalli
• Vidyaranyapura Agrahara, Sringeri

References

References

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