Dakshina Kannada , (earlier known as South Kanara, or South Canara), is a coastal Karnataka district in thestate of Karnataka in India. It is bordered by Udupi District to the north, Chikkamagaluru district to the northeast, Hassan District to the east, Kodagu District to the southeast, and Kasaragod District in Kerala to the south. The Arabian Sea bounds it on the west. Mangalore is the headquarters and chief city of the district.

The district is divided into five talukas, Mangalore, Bantwal, Puttur, Sullia, and Belthangady. It used to include three northern talukas, Udupi,Kundapur and Karkal, but these were separated in August 1997 to form Udupi district. Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod districts are often called Tulu Nadu, as Tulu is the majority language in the region. The Alupas who ruled this region between the 8th and 14th century CE as a feudatory of all the major Kannada empires of those times ecncouraged and made Kannada their official language. It is for this reason that the Tulu speaking districts are a part of Karnataka state.