Northern Karnataka

North Karnataka ಉತ್ತರ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ
North Karnataka region shown in blue
Country	India
State	Karnataka
Headquarter	Belagavi and Gulbarga|Kalaburgi
Area
• Total	88,361 km2 (34,116 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	24,571,229
• Density	280/km2 (720/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Kannada
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Sex ratio	960 ♂/♀
Literacy	70%

North Karnataka, locally known as Uttara Karnataka, is a geographical region consisting of mostly semi-arid plateau from 300 to 730 metres (980 to 2,400 ft) elevation that constitutes the northern part of the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is drained by the Krishna River and its tributaries the Bhima, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha, and Tungabhadra. North Karnataka lies within the Deccan thorn scrub forests ecoregion, which extends north into eastern Maharashtra.

It includes the districts of Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Bidar, Bellary, Kalaburgi District|Gulbarga|Kalaburgi, Yadagiri, Raichur, Gadag, Dharwad, Haveriand Koppal district Major cities in the region are Belagavi, Hubli, Dharwad, Bellary, Vijayapura, Kalaburgi, Bidar, Ranebennur, Chikodi, Hospet and Gokak.