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taluks (administrative units) of Madikeri, Virajpet and Somwarpet with Madikeri (earlier known as Mercara) as the district
headquarters. Coorg is surrounded by Hassan district in the north, Mysore district in the east, Dakshina Kannada district on the West and the state of Kerala to the south. As per the 1991 census, Kannada is the mother tongue of 37 per cent of the population, followed by Malayalam with 19 per cent. Malayalam is the language spoken by the people in the neighbouring state ofKerala. This shows that a large chunk of the Coorg
population has migrated from Kerala. The number of
people who speak Coorg dialect, the language of the
original inhabitants is only 16 per cent.
Besides the Coorgs, the other communities who speak
the Coorg or Kodava dialect include Amma Kodavas,
Peggade, Airi, Hajama and Kembatti Holeyas.
The number of Tulu-speaking people is nine per cent.
Tulu is the language spoken by people in the Mangalore
region (the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi).
Another important language spoken in the district is
Tamil with six per cent. The Tamils, who work mainly
in the coffee plantations, have migrated from the
state of Tamil Nadu. Urdu, the language spoken by a
section of the Muslims, is spoken by 2.8 per cent of
the population. The majority of the Muslims in the
district speak Malayalam and most of them are traders.
The Malayalam-speaking Muslims are locally known as
'Moplas, or Mapiles or Kakas' who are known for their
friendly nature and business acumen.
The largest river in the district is the Cauvery, with
its main tributaries of Hemavathi, Lakshmanathirta,
the Kakkabbe and Suvarnavati which flow in an easterly
direction and the Barapole that flows towards the
west.
In India, Coorg is the largest producer of coffee.
The headquarters of Tata Coffee, one of the biggest
coffee producing companies in Asia, is located at
Pollibetta, in south Coorg.
In Coorg district, the Arabica variety covers 26,100
hectares with an annual production of around 25,000
metric tones and the Robusta variety spans across
56,250 hectares with a production of around 67,000
metric tones.
Pepper is also grown extensively in Coorg. Cardamom
is another crop grown in the hilly and moist parts.
The cultivation of paddy, once the principal crop, has
declined over the years. The coffee boom, a decade
ago, led to the shrinkage of the paddy area, as paddy
fields were converted into coffee estates. With the
coffee prices now declining, the farmers have begun
cultivating ginger in the paddy fields.
Coorg was once synonymous with oranges. Oranges have
now become scarce due to pest and disease.
Coorg, located on the slopes of the Western Ghats, has
abundant forest wealth, covering over 30 per cent of
the total area of the district. Coorg is famous for
its "sacred forests" granted by the erstwhile rulers,
adjoining village temples or local deities. These
forests have helped in maintaining the ecological
balance in the area.
Rosewood is the most valuable timber found in
abundance in the area which is generally used for
making furniture. Sandalwood is also found in Coorg.
There are no major industries in Coorg, except for
timber-based units and coffee curing works.
Coorg is one of the heavy rainfall regions in India
and the annual average rainfall ranges from 2,000 mm
in the lower reaches of the Western Ghats to 7,000 mm
in the Bhagamandala region, close to Talacauvery, the
birthplace of river Cauvery. Climatically, the year
may be divided into four seasons. January and
February are the winter months, marked by clear skies,
and March to May are the summer months when the
mercury shoots up. The South-West monsoon sets in
around the first week of June and lasts till September
and the North-East monsoon commences in October and
goes on till December.
Coorg was a part 'C' state prior its merger with the
erstwhile state of Mysore (now Karnataka) following
the linguistic re-organisation of the Indian states in
1956. Prior to the merger, Coorg had its own
Legislative Assembly and an elected Chief Minister.
After losing statehood, Coorg has lost its political
importance. At present, three MLAs are elected from
Coorg to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, one each
from Madikeri, Virajpet and Somwarpet taluks. Coorg is
part of the Mangalore Lok Sabha Parliament
constituency. After being reduced from statehood to
the status of a mere district in 1956, a couple of
organizations have sprung up in the region, demanding
separate statehood and autonomy for Coorg.
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