Dakshina Kannada or (Mangalore district) is a coastal
district in the
state of
Karnataka in
India. Sheltered by the
Western Ghats on the east and surrounded by the
Arabian Sea on the west, Dakshina Kannada receives abundant rainfall during the
monsoon. It is bordered by
Udupi District to the north,
Chikkamagaluru district to the northeast,
Hassan District to the east,
Kodagu to the southeast, and
Kasaragod District in
Kerala to the south.
Mangalore city is the district headquarters of Dakshina Kannada. The district is divided into five
talukas namely
Mangalore,
Bantwal,
Puttur,
Sullia, and
Belthangady. It used to include 4 northern talukas,
Udupi,
Kundapur,
Karkala and
Byndoor, but these were separated in August 1997 to form
Udupi district. Dakshina Kannada,
Udupi and
Kasaragod are often called
Tulu Nadu, as
Tulu is the majority language in the region. The
Alupas ruled this region between the 8th and 14th century CE as a feudatory of all the major
Kannada empires of those times and it is for this reason that the Tulu speaking districts are a part of Karnataka.