Dakshina Kannada or South Canara

Dakshina Kannada, also called as South Canara is a coastal district of Karnataka state. It is bordered by Udupi to the north, Chikmagalur to the northeast, Hassan District to the east, Coorg to the southeast, and Kasaragod in Kerala to the south. The Arabian Sea bounds it on the west. Mangalore is the capital and chief city of the district.

The district can be divided into two agro-climatic regions as coastal region and Malnad region. The coastal region consists of Mangalore and the Malnad region consists of Belthangady, Puttur, Sullia and Buntwal taluks. It used to include three northern taluks, Udupi, Kundapur and Karkala, but these were separated in August 1997 to form Udupi district.

Mangalore is the district head quarters of Dakshina Kannada, has been a trading centre for several centuries.

The important rivers of Dakshina Kannada District are Suvarnanadi, Shambavi (Mulki), Gurpur River, Nethravathi, Pavanje, Nandini besides there there are many other rivers with perennial flow of water and a number of streams, all running from east to west.

Dakshina Kannada facts
State	Karnataka
Total Geographical Area	477149 Hectares
Laguages spoken	Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam, Konkani, English, Hindi
Temples	Mangala Devi, Kadri Manjunatha, Kudroli Gokarnatheswara, Kateel Durgaparameshwari, Sree Kshetra Dharmasthala, Kukke Sri Subrahmanya, Kodiadka, Sowthadka, Bappanadu