(TibetanReview.net, Oct11’23) – The government of Karnataka has granted a budgetary sanction of Rs 30 million for the welfare of the Tibetan community across the Indian state for the fiscal year 2023-2024, said the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on its Tibet.net website Oct 11. The state is home to the largest number of Tibetans living in India spread over five settlements in three districts.
The amount represents a significant increase from the previous two years’ allocations of Rs 20 million each.
The budget has been sanctioned mainly for education, social welfare, old people’s homes, preservation of culture, renovation of houses of the destitute, environment protection, mid-day meal scheme, tourism development, youth empowerment and sports, and village development.
Earlier, on Oct 7, the CTA’s Bengaluru-based Chief Representative Officer of the South Zone spoke on the immediate and long-term concerns of the Tibetan exile community in a meeting presided over by the Principal Secretary of the state’s Revenue Department, Mr Rajender Kumar Kataria, with the participation of the CTA Representatives at the five settlements.
Most of the Tibetans in Karnataka live in the five settlements of Bylakuppe’s Lugsung Samdupling and Dickey Larsoe, and Hunsur’s Rabgayling in Mysore district; Mundgod’s Doeguling in Uttara Kannada district; and Kollegal’s Dhondenling in Chamarajanagar district.
In 2019, the government of India put the number of Tibetans living in India at 85,000, a steep decline from 150,000 it reported in 2011. This further declined to 73,404, according to the CTA’s 2019 census. Of them, 21,922 lived in Karnataka, 16,146 in Himachal Pradesh, and so forth.