Gajanur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This page is about the village in Tamil Nadu. There is another Gajanur in the Shimoga district of Karnataka
Gajanur is a village in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu, India. The place is famous as the birthplace of Kannada actor and icon Dr. Rajkumar.
Gajanur is located 4km from the Tamil Nadu - Karnataka border. It borders Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka. 90% of the population of Gajanur and the neighbouring Thalavadi villages are Kannada-speaking people. There have been protest marches in these villages urging the Tamil Nadu government to hand over these villages to Karnataka.
Gajanur is part of the Satyamangalam forest-belt that was terrorized by forest brigand Veerappan. On July 30, 2000 Veerappan abducted Dr. Rajkumar from his ancestral home in Gajanur, where he had gone for the house-warming ceremony of his new house. This event put the Karnataka government in a political dilemma of whether or not to call in the army. The decision was reached that to do so would set a poor precedent. Rajkumar was released without harm on November 15, 2000, after 109 days in captivity.
