Districts of Maharashtra

Maharashtra is divided into thirty-five districts, which are grouped into six divisions: Aurangabad, Amravati, Konkan, Nagpur, Nashik, and Pune. These are official revenue divisions of government of Maharashtra.

Geographically, historically and according to political sentiments Maharashtra has five main regions: Vidarbha or Berar (Nagpur and Amravati divisions), Marathwada (Aurangabad Division), Kandesh and Northern Maharashtra (Nashik Division), Desh or Western Maharashtra (Pune division), and Konkan (Konkan Division).

Maharashtra has a long standing dispute with Karnataka on the sovereignty of the Belgaum district in northwest Karnataka. When India’s states were drawn on linguistic grounds, Belgaum was merged into Karnataka, despite having a large Marathi-speaking population. Recently, the Maharashtra government took the matter to the Supreme Court.

The verdict is still pending. Nonetheless, Maharashtra considers Belgaum to be a part of the state and recognises its residents as its own. Historically having been ruled by the emperors of the ancient kingdom of Karnataka, the present Maharastra also has a major Kannada-speaking population-group in its southern districts, as well as in the major cities of Bombay and Pune.