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.