According to the
2011 census Chamarajanagar district has a
population of 1,020,791, or the US state of
Montana. This gives it a ranking of 441st in India (out of a total of
640). 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 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, 4.58%
Tamil, 4.42%
Urdu 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
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. ==Tourist attractions==