This study provides a geographical analysis of the Iruliga tribal population in Karnataka, examining their spatial distribution, demographic characteristics, and settlement patterns within the state. By analysing the 2011 Census data, the study highlights the community’s concentration in rural and forest-fringe environments, their ecological relationship with the Western Ghats region, and the socio-demographic variations observed across space. The analysis situates the Iruliga population within the broader framework of human–environment interactions, regional development disparities, and tribal geographies of southern India. They are a Scheduled Tribe belonging to the Dravidian ethnic group and are also known as Irular. The Iruliga tribal population is concentrated in southern India, with their largest populations in Tamil Nadu, followed by Kerala and Karnataka.

According to the 2011 census, the total population was approximately 213,641, with 189,621 in Tamil Nadu, 23,721 in Kerala, and 10,259 in Karnataka. This study uses the Two-Proportion Z-test because we are comparing two proportions (p1 and p2) from two large, independent samples. This involves calculating the pooled sample proportion, standard error, and the final Z-statistic. Given p1 = 0.495 and p2 ≈ 0.400 with large sample sizes, the resulting Z-statistic would be extremely large (far exceeding the critical Z-score of 1.645 for α=0.05). Determine p-value: Because the difference in proportions is large and the sample sizes (n ≈ 5,000 each) are very high, the P-value will be extremely close to zero (P-value ≈ 0.0000). This test addresses the significant 9.5%-point difference in literacy observed between Iruliga males and females.