Sat Mar 15 14:28:36 UTC 2025: ## Tulu Language Advocacy Takes Center Stage at Karnataka Academy Awards

**Mangaluru, March 15, 2025** – The Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy held its annual award ceremony on Saturday, highlighting the need for increased recognition and preservation of the Tulu language. The event, held at Tulu Bhavan in Mangaluru, featured calls for proactive measures to ensure accurate representation of Tulu speakers in the upcoming census.

Purushottama Bilimale, chairman of the Kannada Development Authority (KDA), urged the academy to launch a campaign encouraging Tulu speakers to register their mother tongue during the census. He emphasized the importance of accurate data for government policy decisions regarding language-related funding and initiatives, including parliamentary constituency delimitation. Bilimale noted the challenges facing Tulu’s inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, given the numerous other languages vying for inclusion.

He also highlighted the plight of several regional languages and dialects facing extinction, citing the drastic decline in Koraga speakers. Bilimale stated that a survey revealed the existence of 230 languages and dialects in Karnataka besides Kannada.

The ceremony itself saw the presentation of honorary awards to several prominent Tulu litterateurs for 2022, 2023, and 2024, each receiving ₹50,000 and a citation. Book awards, carrying a ₹25,000 purse and citation, were also presented to four writers. Additional endowment awards were given to six writers, including a former Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka Folklore University.

MLA Umanath A. Kotian stressed the importance of keeping politics out of language-related issues. The event underscored the ongoing efforts to preserve and promote Tulu language and literature within the broader context of Karnataka’s linguistic diversity.

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