Udupi district (also Udipi or Odipu district) is an administrative subdivision in the Karnataka state of India, with the district headquarters in the city of Udupi. It is situated in the Canara coastal region, there are seven taluks, 233 villages and 21 towns in Udupi district. The three northern tehsils of Udupi, Kundapur and Karkala, were partitioned from Dakshina Kannada district (South Canara) to form Udupi district on 25 August 1997. Moodabidri was officially declared as new tehsil (taluk), separated from Karkala with effect from 11 January 2018.