Dakshina Kannada continues to be the second densely populated district in the State after Bangalore Urban district.
Density of population means the number of people living per square kilometre area.According to the provisional census report of 2011 released by the State Directorate of Census Operations, Dakshina Kannada has maintained the second rank in density of population in the State in 2011 and 2001 census.Bangalore Rural district stands third and Udupi district 12th rank.
The report said that density of population was one of the important indices of population concentration. Density of population in Dakshina Kannada increased from 416 persons per sq. km. in 2001 to 457 persons per sq. km. in 2011.
In Bangalore Urban district, it increased from 2,985 persons in 2001 to 4,378 persons in 2011 and in Bangalore Rural district the density increased from 380 persons in 2001 to 441 persons in 2011.
In Udupi district, it increased from 287 persons in 2001 to 304 persons in 2001, the report said.
Kodagu was the least populated district in the State with the density of 135 persons per sq. km. Kodagu which was ranked at the 29th place in 2001 census slipped to the last position after a decade.
Reasons
G.V. Joshi, an economist and a member of Karnataka State Planning Board, said that infrastructure development, growth in higher education, availability of quality of education, growth in small and medium scale enterprises, and flourishing construction industry in Dakshina Kannada district have contributed to the high density of population.
He said that boom in the establishment of professional higher education institutes in the district in the past decade attracted many students from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Joshi said that although agriculture sector did not witness much growth in the last decade, flourishing small and medium scale enterprises have compensated that shortfall.
He said the boom in the construction industry resulted in the concentration of labourers from North Karnataka in the district and improvements in railway, road, and airport networks have added to further concentration of people.
Meanwhile, growth in density of population would not help Mangalore City Corporation to get funds under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for developing infrastructure facilities.
This is because the total population under the jurisdiction of the corporation did not reach 10 lakh as required to get funds.
A senior official in the civic body said that according to the provisional estimate the population of the city stood at 6.5 lakh in 2011 census.
The former Mayor M. Shankar said that even if greater Mangalore was formed by incorporating Mulky, Ullal, and Bajpe towns, the city corporation would not meet the eligibility criteria to get funds under the mission as the total population could reach up to nine lakh.
