Ballekere

Ballekere (Ballhekere) is a medium size village located in Kadur Taluk of Chikmagalur district, Karnataka with total 288 families residing. The village has population of 1157 of which 585 are males while 572 are females as per Population Census 2011.

Former Prime Minister Indhira Ghandhi visited to this village during her election campaign where she contested by-election from Chickmagaluru constituency (But now the village belongs to Hassan constituency ) after emergency.[1]

As per 2011 census, the village population with age group of 0-6 is 81 which makes up 7.00 % of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Ballekere village is 978 which is higher than Karnataka state average of 973.

Now the village is a shining examples for the modern villages for the obvious reason that it has a descent infrastructure as well as, well educated peoples of diverse background working across the globe.

Ballekere village has lower literacy rate compared to an average in Karnataka. In 2011, literacy rate of Ballekere village was 72.03 % compared to 75.36 % of Karnataka with male and female literacy rates were 80.93 % and 63.06 % respectively.

The village is governed by the 'village panchayat' with Sarpanch (Head of Village) and Panchayti members who are the elected representatives of village who are assisted by the local bureaucracts of PDO and bill collector, who were appointed by the Government of Karnataka.

It has the Govt primary school upto class 7 and a primary health care centre in the village located close proximity to the Sri Anjaneya Swami Temple.

The main occupation of the people is agriculture with main crops are Ragi, Jowar, Groundnut, Sunflower i.e. less water consuming crops are preferred by the farmers since the farming practices of the people is rainfed agriculture.

There is no irrigation is available in the village. There is small reservoir(ಕೆರೆ) exist at close proximity to the village which is rain dependent. There a plan to connect this reservoir with Ayyanakere so that it could help farmers who suffered historically with draught as the village exists geographically in the rain shadow region of the Western Ghats.

The village is well connected by road and train.[2] Ballekere is about 7 km away from Kadur. The railway station is located approximately 1Km from the village, where it connects the cities like Bengaluru,Mysuru,Shimoga,Hubli etc

The village celebrates historically "Sri Anjaneya Swamy Ratotsava" every year along with locally played drama "Sri Shani Mahatme Pouranika Nataka" by the villagers. Other vital rituals like "Hanuma Mala" during the Sankranti period, "Ambu" during Navarathri period were also celebrated annually.

• Ballecer