Diu district () (formerly Distrito de Dio) is one of the three

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

s of the

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a union territory in India. The territory was constituted through the merger of the former territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Plans for the proposed merger were announced by th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The district is made up of

Diu Island Diu Island is an island off the southern coast of Gujarat's Kathiawar peninsula, separated from the mainland by a tidal creek. It has an area of 38 km2, and a population of 44,110 (2001 census). Administratively it belongs to the Diu distri ...

and two small enclaves of Simbor and Gogola, at the border with the state of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. The district headquarters are at Diu Town. It is the ninth least populous district in the country (out of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

History

The district was historically part of the

Saurashtra Saurashtra, Sourashtra, or variants may refer to: ** Kathiawar, also called Saurashtra Peninsula, a peninsula in western India ** Saurashtra (state), alias United State of Kathiawar, a former Indian state, merged into Bombay State and since its d ...

region of Gujarat. Mirroring the system of administrative division in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, Diu district (''Distrito de Diu'') was established as an administrative division of the

Portuguese State of India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

(''Estado da Índia'') in the first half of the 19th century. It was headed by a district governor, subordinate to the

governor-general Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

of Portuguese India in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. The district included the single municipality of Diu, which was further subdivided into

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishe ...

. It remained an overseas territory of Portugal until it was annexed by Indian forces on 19 December 1961. From 1961 to 1987, it was a part of the union territory of

Goa, Daman and Diu Goa, Daman and Diu (, ) was a union territory of the Republic of India established in 1961 following the Annexation of Goa, liberation of Portuguese India, with Maj Gen K P Candeth as its first governor. The Goa portion of the territory was gran ...

. In 1987, it became a part of the newly formed union territory of Daman and Diu. In January 2020, the district became part of the new union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Geography

Diu district occupies an area of , It consists of

and a part on the mainland (the Ghogolá peninsula). 20 km East of Diu Island, is the small territory of Simbor.

Sub-districts

Diu Island

The town of Diu and most of the district's villages and settlements are on

. Many of these places have been renamed since the Invasion of 1961.

Ghogholá

The area on the mainland borders

Gir Somnath district Gir Somnath is a district of Gujarat, India. It is located on the southern corner of the Kathiawar peninsula with its headquarters at the city of Somnath. Gir Somnath was split from Junagadh district in August 2013, when seven new districts came ...

. It contains the village of Ghogholá. The village lies on the mainland opposite the eastern end of the island .

Simbor

The tiny territory of Simbor, located about 25 km east of the town of Diu, is also part of the district. It has no permanent population.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Diu district has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 52,074, roughly equal to the nation of

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis, is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of the Less ...

. This gives it a ranking of 631st in India (out of a total of

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 17.73%. Diu has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 1030

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 83.36%. There is a small community of the variety of Indo-Portuguese creole spoken in the region known as Daman and Diu Portuguese Creole.

Sister cities

is twinned with the city of

Loures Loures () is a city and a municipality in Portugal which is part of the Lisbon District, District and Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Metropolitan area of Lisbon. It is the fifth most populous municipality in the country, with a total population of 201, ...

, in Portugal.

Landmarks

Diu is home to a few surviving buildings and monuments with

Portuguese architecture Portuguese architecture refers to both the architecture of Portugal's modern-day territory in Continental Portugal, the Azores and Madeira, as well as the architectural heritage/patrimony of Portuguese architects and styles throughout the world ...

. The best preserved are the churches and fortifications. The nearest railway junction is Veraval, which is 90 km from Diu. Major cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Dwarka and Thiruvananthapuram are directly connected to Veraval Railway Station. Delwada is 8 km from Diu.

Churches and chapels

There has been a steady exodus of Christians from Diu ever since the Invasion of 1961. This has led to many of their historic and historic and religious sites being victims of abandonment, disrepair, conversion to secular use or demolishment.

Fortresses

Due to constant invasions from neighboring kingdoms as well as distant powers, the Portuguese built several fortifications all over the district. Most survived to this day, although some have little to no physical traces of their existence.

Beaches

* Nagoá Beach, most visited beach in on Diu. * Ghogolá Beach, largest beach off the island of Diu. * Chakratirth Beach * Barra Beach * Nadia Caves

Gallery

File:Diu Fort Fixed Cannons.JPG, Diu Fort Fixed Cannons File:Eglise St Thomas.jpg, St. Thomas Church, Diu File:Diu fort, India.JPG, Diu fort File:Nadia Caves of Diu.jpg, Nadia Caves of Diu File:PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF ST.PAUL CHURCH, DIU, INDIA (2012).jpg, St. Paul's Church, Diu File:Church in Nani Daman Fort.jpg, Church in Nani Daman Fort Altar of Se Cathedral.jpg, Se Cathedral File:View of Water Fort Prison from Diu Fort with watch tower of Diu Fort.JPG, View of Water Fort Prison from Diu Fort with watchtower of Diu Fort Wall of the Portuguese Fort of Diu.jpg, Portuguese Fort File:Diu shores in Monsoon.jpg, Diu shores in Monsoon

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Districts of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu