Bellary district

Bellary (: ;; : in Kannada and  in ) is a district in  state,.

History
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Geography
Bellary district is spread from southwest to northeast and is situated on the eastern side of state. The district is 15° 30’ and 15°50’ north latitude and 75° 40’ and 77° 11’ east longitude. The geographical area is 8447 km².

This district is bounded by  on the north,   on the west,  and   on the south, and  and   of  on the east.

The normal rainfall is 639 mm.

Administration
Bellary comes under the administrative control of division and development jurisdiction of H.K.D.B, Gulbarga.

It has 2 revenue sub divisions, Bellary subdivision and Hospet subdivision, which in all have seven taluks. The Bellary subdivision has 3 taluks, while there are four taluks in Hospet subdivision. There are 27 hoblies, two CMC's, one town municipality, seven town panchayats, 542 revenue villages, and 436 thandas/habitations.

As per census the population of the district stood at 2,245,000. The rural population constitute 70%. The density of population is 196 per km²., which is much lower than the state average of 235 per km². However the decimal growth rate for 1981-91 was 26.92% which is higher than the state growth rate of 21.12% The scheduled caste/scheduled tribe population constitute 28% of the total population. The sex-ratio was 965, which is slightly higher than the state average of 960.



Economy
The major occupation of this district is and 75% total labour force is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. The important crops grown are, , , , and. The net irrigated area is 37% to the net area sown. The pattern of land utilization in the district is as under (-).

The main source of irrigation is Tungabhadra Dam. The Canal network accounts for 64% of irrigated area. The important rivers are Tungabhadra, Hagari and Chikkahagari. The western taluks of the district are dogged with scarcity conditions with the failure of rains during successive years. However during the current year and preceding year heavy rains have created havoc in the district leaving many in lurch.

Bellary district is rich in natural resources which need to be tapped to a great extent for overall development of the district. This district is endowed with rich mineral resources. It has both metallic and non-metallic minerals. The metallic minerals include ore,  ore,, ,  and. The non-metallic minerals include, , , , , , , , , , and. The metallic minerals are abundant is only three taluks,, and Bellary in the order of mining activity intensity. The annual production of Iron ore is anywhere between 2.75 to 4.5 million tonnes, and manganese ore between 0.13 million tonnes to 0.3 million tonnes .Bellary presently is the second fastest growing city in the state of Karnataka after Bangalore which is the capital city. The real estate prices have already started to shoot as more and more industries are finding their way into this city. Bellary to its credit has the second largest single rock mountain in the world.

Despite the availability of minerals in large quantities, this district is considered to be an industrially backward district. There are 23 units of large and medium scale industries in this district with an investment of Rs.447.76 crores employing around 9,222 persons At present it occupies ninth place in the state. Sathavahana Ispat Ltd. is the first Pig Iron plant setup in the region to utilize the abundant iron ore reserves available, Kirloskar was the next to follow with their Pig Iron plant. However with the commissioning of Jindal Vijayanagar Steel Limited at Hospet, the industry scenario of this district underwent sea changes. It is understood that Mukund Steels and Kalyani Steels have started industries in this area. The inflow of investment into these industries would be around Rs.30,000 Crores. The district will therefore come under heavy pressure on basic infrastructure such as power, communication, health, education and police stations which again invite heavy investment to create the needed infrastructure. Urgent action is needed to pool the resources under various sectors such as District Sector, State sector, Border Area Development, HKDB etc., and prepare a perspective plan to the emerging challenges. It has already drawn the attention of social scientists economists, administrators and other related functionaries to think over the possible positive and negative impact in this area.The ruthless and illegal mining of iron ore in the district has caused envoirnmental damage and also wide ranging social and economical impact.

Tourism
353 km from and 74 km from Bellary is, known for the ruins of.