Introduction
City in Karnataka, India
This article is about the city in Karnataka, India. For the district, see Ballari District.
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City in Karnataka, IndiaBallariCityBallari cityInteractive map of BallariCoordinates: 15°06′N 76°55′E / 15.100°N 76.917°E / 15.100; 76.917Country IndiaState KarnatakaDistrictBallariGovernment • TypeMunicipal Corporation • BodyBallari City Corporation • MayorP. Gadeppa • CommissionerG Khaleel SabArea • City167.38 km2 (64.63 sq mi) • Rural1,609.68 km2 (621.50 sq mi)Elevation485 m (1,591 ft)Population (2011) • City410,445 • Rank95th (India)
5th (Karnataka) • Density2,452.2/km2 (6,351.1/sq mi) • Rural360,484DemonymBallariansTime zoneUTC+05:30 (IST)Postal Index Number583101, 583102, 583103, 583104, 583105, 583152Telephone code(+91)8392ISO 3166 codeIN-KAVehicle registrationKA-34Official languageKannadaSex ratio1.04 ♂/♀Literacy79%Websiteballaricity.mrc.gov.in
Ballari (Kannada: [bɐɭːaːri], formerly Bellary) is a city in the Ballari district in state of Karnataka, India.
Ballari houses many steel plants such as JSW Vijayanagar, one of the largest in Asia. Ballari district is also known as the 'Steel city of South India'. Ballari is also the headquarters for Karnataka Gramina Bank which almost has more than 1100 + branches in Karnataka.
History
[edit]
Main article: History of Bellary
Core area of Western Chalukya monuments, roughly corresponding to Sindavadi-1000
Madras province (South), 1909 showing Ballari
Ballari was a part of Rayalaseema (Ceded Districts) which was part of Madras Presidency till 1 November 1956.
The Ballari city municipal council was upgraded to a city corporation in 2004.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India approved a proposal to rename the city in October 2014 and Bellary was renamed to "Ballari" on 1 November 2014.
Geography
[edit]
Ballari Fort
Ballari is located at 15°09′N 76°56′E / 15.15°N 76.93°E / 15.15; 76.93. The city stands in the midst of a wide, level plain of black cotton soil.Granite rocks and hills form a prominent feature of Ballari. The city is spread mainly around two hills of granite composition, the Ballari Hill and the Kumbara Gudda.
Ballari Hill has a circumference of nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) and a height of 480 feet (150 m). The length of this rock from north-east to south-west is about 1,150 ft (350 m). To the east and south lies an irregular heap of boulders, to the west there is an unbroken monolith, and the north is walled by bare, rugged ridges.
Kumbara Gudda looks like the profile of a human face from the south-east. It is also known as Face Hill.
Climate[edit]
The climate is a hot semi arid one (BSh), primarily due to the rain shadow effect of the Western Ghats, but monsoons still influence the weather here, with light rain throughout the year, and a slight increase during the summer and autumn.
Climate data for Bellary (1981–2010, extremes 1901–2012)
Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Year
Record high °C (°F)
37.6(99.7)
40.5(104.9)
43.0(109.4)
45.4(113.7)
44.6(112.3)
44.7(112.5)
39.5(103.1)
39.0(102.2)
38.4(101.1)
39.0(102.2)
38.4(101.1)
35.6(96.1)
44.7(112.5)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)
31.4(88.5)
34.4(93.9)
38.1(100.6)
40.4(104.7)
39.6(103.3)
35.3(95.5)
32.7(90.9)
31.9(89.4)
32.3(90.1)
31.8(89.2)
30.8(87.4)
30.2(86.4)
34.1(93.4)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)
15.6(60.1)
18.1(64.6)
21.1(70.0)
23.9(75.0)
24.4(75.9)
23.3(73.9)
23.0(73.4)
22.7(72.9)
21.9(71.4)
20.9(69.6)
18.3(64.9)
15.6(60.1)
20.7(69.3)
Record low °C (°F)
7.0(44.6)
8.5(47.3)
10.0(50.0)
13.0(55.4)
14.5(58.1)
14.8(58.6)
15.5(59.9)
15.0(59.0)
15.0(59.0)
12.5(54.5)
8.4(47.1)
8.0(46.4)
7.0(44.6)
Average rainfall mm (inches)
2.9(0.11)
2.3(0.09)
6.0(0.24)
17.2(0.68)
54.3(2.14)
59.2(2.33)
42.6(1.68)
70.0(2.76)
111.0(4.37)
89.0(3.50)
39.5(1.56)
5.5(0.22)
499.5(19.67)
Average rainy days
0.5
0.2
0.6
1.5
3.4
3.8
3.8
4.7
5.4
5.8
2.4
0.5
32.7
Average relative humidity (%) (at 17:30 IST)
43
37
30
29
34
50
56
58
58
62
56
50
47
Source: India Meteorological Department
Demographics
[edit]
Ballari Fort
Historical populationYearPop.±%193147,573—    1941 56,148+18.0%195170,332+25.3%196185,673+21.8%1971125,183+46.1%1981 201,579+61.0%1991245,391+21.7%2001316,766+29.1%2011410,445+29.6%Source:
Religions in Ballari City (2011)
Religion
Percent
Hinduism
 
70.33%
Islam
 
26.53%
Christianity
 
1.71%
Jainism
 
0.79%
Other or not stated
 
0.65%
According to the 2011 Census of India, the urban population of Ballari was 410,445; of whom 206,149 were male and 204,296 female. 280,610 of the population were literate and 52,413 of the population were under 7 years of age. The population in 2001 was recorded as 316,766.
Languages[edit]
Languages of Ballari City (2011)
Kannada (42.1%)
Telugu (25.0%)
Urdu (24.4%)
Hindi (3.04%)
Marathi (1.75%)
Tamil (1.69%)
Marwari (0.85%)
Lambadi (0.50%)
Kannada is the largest language, spoken by 42.06% of the population. Telugu is the second-largest, spoken by 25.03%, and Urdu 24.35%. 3.04% of the population spoke Hindi, 1.75% Marathi, 1.69% Tamil, 0.85% Marwari and 0.50% Lambadi.
Economy
[edit]
Industries[edit]
Textiles and garments[edit]
Cotton processing
With cotton being one of the major agricultural crops around Ballari historically, the city has had a thriving cotton processing industry in the form of ginning, spinning and weaving plants. The earliest steam cotton-spinning mill was established in 1894, which by 1901 had 17,800 spindles, and employed 520 hands.
The city continues to thrive in this sector with one spinning mill and numerous cotton ginning and pressing mills, hand looms and power looms.
Garment manufacture
Ballari has a historic garment industry dating back to the First World War period, when the Marathi speaking "Darji" (tailor) community with its native skills in tailoring migrated from the current Maharashtra region to stitch uniforms for the soldiers of the colonial British Indian Army stationed at Ballari. After the war, the community switched to making uniforms for school children, and gradually the uniforms made here became popular all over the country.
Currently, Ballari is well known for its branded and unbranded denim garments, with brands like Point Blank, Walker, Dragonfly and Podium being successfully marketed nationally and internationally. There are about 260 denim garment units in Ballari with nearly 3000 families working in these units.
Transport
[edit]
Ballari railway station platform 1
Roadways[edit]
National Highway 67 (India), National Highway 150A (India), State Highway 128 and State Highway 132 pass through the city.
Rail[edit]
There is Ballari Junction railway station on the Guntakal–Vasco da Gama section.
Air[edit]
The closest functional commercial airport is Jindal Vijaynagar Airport.
Notable people
[edit]
See Category:People from Ballari
Kolur Basavanagoud – Politician, Educationist, and Industrialist. He served as MP in 13th Lok Sabha from Ballari Lok Sabha constituency.
Basavarajeshwari – Politician and Industrialist
Ravi Belagere – Actor, writer, novelist, journalist, publisher of the Hai Bengaluru Tabloid
Naveen Chandra – Actor in Telugu film industry
Manjula Chellur −1st Woman Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court
Nagarur Gopinath – One of the pioneers of cardiothoracic surgery in India, credited with the first successful performance of open heart surgery in India in 1962. Recipient of Padma Shri (1974) and Dr. B. C. Roy Award (1978)
Jayanthi – cinema actress, born in Ballari
K. C. Kondaiah – Politician and industrialist
Arcot Ranganatha Mudaliar – Former Deputy Collector of Ballari, politician and theosophist. He served as the Minister of Public Health and Excise for the Madras Presidency from 1926 to 1928.
A. Sabhapathy Mudaliar – Philanthropist; The Women & Children's Hospital or The District Hospital was initially named after him, following his donation of land and building to the hospital.
B Nagendra - Youth Welfare and Sports Minister of Karnataka
Bellary Raghava (1880–1946) – Noted dramatist. The Raghava Kala Mandir auditorium in Ballari is named after him
Suparna Rajaram – Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University
Dharmavaram Ramakrishnamacharyulu (1853–1912) – Noted dramatist
Bhargavi Rao – a Kannada-Telugu translator, winner of the prestigious Kendra Sahitya Academy award
Kolachalam Srinivasa Rao (1854–1919) – Noted dramatist
Gali Janardhan Reddy – Former minister and district in charge. He is one of the richest politicians in India
B Sriramulu - Ex Minister of Health and Family Welfare of Karnataka
Tekur Subramanyam – Indian Freedom Fighter, First post-independence MP of Ballari, elected thrice in a row since 1952, political secretary to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
Ibrahim B. Syed – Indo-American Radiologist
Allum Veerabhadrappa - former minister, Government of Karnataka
