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A district is an administrative division of an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state or territory. Districts are further subdivided, in some cases into Sub-Divisions

Subdivisions of India

The Administrative divisions of India are Indian subnational administrative units; they compose a nested hierarchy of country subdivisions. Indian states and territories frequently use different local titles for the same level of subdivision The Administrative divisions of India are Indian...

, and otherwise directly into tehsils or talukas

Tehsil

A Tehsil or Tahsil/Tahasil , also known as Taluk and Mandal, is an administrative division of some country/countries of South Asia....

.

District officials include:

the Deputy Commissioner
Deputy Commissioner (India)
The deputy commissioner or district magistrate or district collector or district magistrate and collector is the head of the revenue administration of an Indian district. The DC is required to be an Indian Administrative Service officer who is in charge of governmental assets in his district of...

or District Magistrate or District Collector
District collector
The District Collector is the district head of administration of the bureaucracy in a state of India. Though he/she is appointed and is under general supervision of the state government, he/she has to be a member of the elite IAS recruited by the Central Government...

, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service
Indian Administrative Service
The Indian Administrative Service is the administrative civil service of the Government of India. It is one of the three All India Services....

, in charge of administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....

and revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....

collection
the Superintendent of Police or Deputy Commissioner of Police, an officer belonging to the Indian Police Service
Indian Police Service
The Indian Police Service , simply known as Indian Police or IPS, is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India...

, responsible for maintaining law and order
Law and order (politics)
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
the Deputy Conservator of Forests
Deputy Conservator of Forests (India)
A Deputy Conservator of Forests or, equivalently a Divisional Forest Officer is an officer belonging to the elite Indian Forest Service. The Deputy Conservator of Forests is responsible for managing the Forests, Environment and Wild-Life related issues of a Forest Division of a state or a union...

, an officer belonging to the Indian Forest Service
Indian Forest Service
The Indian Forest Service is the Forestry service of India. It is one of the three All India Services of the Indian government, along with the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service; its employees are recruited by the national government but serve under the state governments or...

, entrusted with the management of the forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

and wildlife
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....

of the district

Each of these officials is aided by officers of the appropriate branches of state government.

Most districts have a distinct headquarters

Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

; Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

is an example of a city which, despite coming under a district, does not have a district headquarters, though it does have a Collector.

Overview

No. of districts in each state or UT
Map key	Name of State or Union Territory	Dist.
1	Andhra Pradesh Districts of Andhra Pradesh The state of Andhra Pradesh is divided into 23 districts which are listed below....	23
2	Arunachal Pradesh	16
3	Assam Districts of Assam Assam, a state of India, has twenty-seven administrative districts.A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by the Deputy Commissioner , which combines the offices of the District Magistrate ultimately responsible for maintaining law and order and District...	27
4	Bihar Districts of Bihar Bihar, a state of India, has currently thirty-eight administrative districts.A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a district magistrate or a deputy commissioner, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service...	38
5	Chhattisgarh Districts of Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh, a state of India, has 18 administrative districts. Two new districts, Bijapur and Naryanpur were carved out on May 11, 2007. On August 15, 2011, Chief Minister Raman Singh announced that 12 new districts would be created in 2012....	18
6	Goa	2
7	Gujarat Districts of Gujarat -History:The state was created in 1960 out of the 17 northern districts of the former Bombay State: Ahmedabad, Amreli, Banaskantha, Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Dang, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Kheda, Kachchh, Mehsana, Panchmahal, Rajkot, Sabarkantha, Surat, Surendranagar, and Vadodara .In 1964 Gandhinagar...	26
8	Haryana Districts of Haryana Haryana a state in the northern region of India and is the nation's seventeenth most populous. The state borders with Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north and Rajasthan to the west and south. The river Yamuna defines its eastern border with Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Haryana also surrounds...	21
9	Himachal Pradesh Districts of Himachal Pradesh A district of Himachal Pradesh is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a Deputy Commissioner or District Magistrate, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service...	12
10	Jammu and Kashmir Districts of Jammu and Kashmir The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir consists of three divisions: Jammu, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh, and is further divided into 22 districts:Jammu regionKathuaJammuSambaUdhampurReasiRajouriPoonchDodaRambanKishtwar...	22
11	Jharkhand Districts of Jharkhand Jharkhand, a state of India, has twenty-four administrative districts.A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a district magistrate or a deputy commissioner, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service...	24
12	Karnataka Districts of Karnataka The Indian State of Karnataka is located within 11°30' North and 18°30' North latitudes and 74° East and 78°30' East longitude. It is situated on a tableland where the Western and Eastern Ghat ranges converge into the Nilgiri hill complex, in the western part of the Deccan Peninsular region of India...	30
13	Kerala Districts of Kerala The Indian state of Kerala borders with the states of Tamil Nadu on the south and east, Karnataka on the north and the Arabian Sea coastline on the west. The Western Ghats, bordering the eastern boundary of the State, form an almost continuous mountain wall, except near Palakkad where there is a...	14
14	Madhya Pradesh Districts of Madhya Pradesh Following is the list of districts in the Indian state Madhya Pradesh. It has 50 districts grouped into ten divisions.Bhopal Division* Bhopal District* Raisen District* Rajgarh District* Sehore District* Vidisha DistrictChambal Division...	50
15	Maharashtra Districts of Maharashtra The Indian state of Maharashtra came into existence on May 1, 1960 , initially with 28 districts. 7 new districts have been created since then and currently the number of districts in the state is 35...	35
16	Manipur Districts of Manipur Manipur, a state of India, has nine administrative districts.A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a district magistrate or a deputy commissioner, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service...	9
17	Meghalaya	7
18	Mizoram	8
19	Nagaland Districts of Nagaland Nagaland, a state of India, has eleven administrative districts.A district of an Indian state is an administrative geographical unit, headed by a district magistrate or a deputy commissioner, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service...	11
20	Orissa Districts of Orissa Orissa, a state on the eastern coast of India, is divided into a number of administrative geographical units called districts. Currently , Orissa consists of the following 30 districts:...	30
21	Punjab	20
22	Rajasthan Districts of Rajasthan The Indian state of Rajasthan is divided into 33 districts for administrative purposes. The responsibilities of district management are carried out by a number of All-India officials and a number of state-appointed officials...	33
23	Sikkim Districts of Sikkim File:Sikkim-district-map-num.png\|250px\|right\|A clickable map of Sikkim exhibiting its four districts.rect 242 167 304 241 North Sikkimrect 310 410 361 475 East Sikkimrect 189 413 232 479 South Sikkimrect 84 383 132 456 West Sikkimdesc bottom-left...	4
24	Tamil Nadu Districts of Tamil Nadu The state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India is divided into 32 districts, including two newly carved districts Ariyalur and Tirupur.More can be found on the sites of the individual districts which are linked from the site of the Tamil Nadu Government ....	32
25	Tripura	4
26	Uttar Pradesh Districts of Uttar Pradesh The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh borders with Nepal and the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand and National Capital Territory of Delhi. The Himalayas lies in the north of the state and the Deccan Plateau is at the south...	75
27	Uttarakhand	13
28	West Bengal Districts of West Bengal The Indian state of West Bengal borders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and Sikkim. The Himalayas lies in the north of the state and the Bay of Bengal is at the south. In between them, the river Ganges flows eastwards and its main...	19
A	Andaman and Nicobar	3
B	Chandigarh Chandigarh Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...	1
C	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	1
D	Daman and Diu Districts of Daman and Diu The union territory of Daman and Diu, India consists of two districts.* Daman district* Diu district...	2
E	Lakshadweep Lakshadweep Lakshadweep , formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the coast of the South West Indian state of Kerala...	1
F	National Capital Territory of Delhi	9
G	Pondicherry	2
%	Total	640

Naming

The majority of districts are named after their administrative center. Some are referred to by two names, a traditional one and one that uses the name of the town that is the headquarters. Since most of the districts are named after a town, the word "district" or "District" is appended to distinguish between the town and the district. Official websites very often use District with a capital D in this context.

Ambiguous names

The names of the 640 districts are mostly unique. There are some exceptions:

Within India five names are ambiguous, representing 10 districts: Aurangabad (BR
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

, MH
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

), Bijapur (CT, KA), Bilaspur (CT, HP), Hamirpur (HP, UP), Pratapgarh (RJ, UP).
Seven districts share names with districts in other countries in South Asia: Bhojpur (BR/Nepal), Daman (DD, Afghanistan), Ghaziabad (UP, Afghanistan), Gopalganj (BR, Bangladesh), Hyderabad (AP/Pakistan), Lalitpur (UP/Nepal), Poonch (JK, Pakistan)
One outside South Asia: Mansa District (PB, Zambia)

City districts

Bangalore Urban district
Ahmedabad District
Calcutta District
Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
Mumbai City District
Mumbai City District
Mumbai City District is a district of Maharashtra in Konkan Division. As a city district, it has no headquarters or subdivisions. It, along with the Mumbai Suburban District make up the metropolis of Mumbai. The city area is called the "island city" or South Mumbai or Old Mumbai. It extends from...
Kanpur (city)
Hyderabad
In Pondicherry U.T.
- Pondicherry district
- Karaikal district
  Karaikal district
  Karaikal district is one of the four regions of the Union Territory of Pondicherry in India.Karaikal town about 16 km. north of Nagappattinam and 9 km.south of Tarangambadi is the regional headquarters...
- Mahe district
  Mahe district
  Mahe district, one of the four districts of the Union Territory of Pondicherry in India, has an area of 9 km2. It consists of the whole of the Mahé region....
- Yanam district
  Yanam district
  Yanam district is one of the four districts of the Union Territory of Pondicherry in India.-Revenue Villages:Apart from the town of Yanam itself, the following villages fall under the district's jurisdiction:* Agraharam* Darialatippa* Farampeta...

Note: Chandigarh is the capital of two states and 1 Union territory.

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