Gajanur
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- 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.[1] 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.[2]
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 108 days in captivity.
