North Goa is one of the two districts that constitute the State of Goa. The district has an area of 1736 km2, and is bounded by Sindhudurg and Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra state to the north and east respectively, by South Goa District to the south, and by the Arabian sea to the west.
Historically, much of today’s North Goa Talukas (Pernem, Bicholim, and Sattari) were under the Kingdom of Sawantwadi while Ponda was under the Sunda Kingdom, the Marathas and Kingdom of Sawantwadi at various points in time. Hence these territories were seen as safe haven for the Hindus who were living under continuous fear of the Portuguese inquest. These territories were conquered by Portuguese as part of New Conquest in the late 18th centuries. These territories then remained with the Portuguese till 1961 when it was liberated by India. In a carefully planned action by the Armed forces, the Government of India entered Goa in December 1961 and with hardly any bloodshed, Goa was liberated from the Portuguese to remove the last vestiges of foreign domination in India.
Goa and two other former Portuguese enclaves became the Union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, and Goa was organized into a single district in 1965. On 30th May 1987, Goa attained statehood (while Daman and Diu remained a union territory), and Goa was reorganized into two districts, North Goa and South Goa.