Andhra Pradesh Geography

Andhra Pradesh lies on India's south-eastern coast, along the Bay of Bengal. It covers about 1,62,968 sq km and has a coastline of about 974 km, the second longest of any state after Gujarat. It borders Odisha to the north-east, Chhattisgarh to the north, Telangana to the north-west, Karnataka to the west and Tamil Nadu to the south; Yanam, part of Puducherry, lies within it in the Godavari delta. Since Telangana became a separate state in 2014, Andhra Pradesh has two regions: Coastal Andhra, along the sea, and Rayalaseema, on the plateau in the south-west.

Land

The state has three natural divisions: the coastal plains, the Eastern Ghats, and the plateau west of the Ghats. The coastal plains run the length of the coast and widen into the fertile deltas of the Godavari and Krishna. The Eastern Ghats are a broken chain of hills rather than a single range: in the north they rise to the Araku valley and the state's highest point, Arma Konda (1,680 m); further south come the Nallamala, Velikonda and Seshachalam hills, where the temple town of Tirumala stands. West of the Ghats, Rayalaseema is a dry, rocky plateau of low hills and wide plains.

About two-thirds of the state stands on hard rock: ancient granites and gneisses, the quartzites, shales and limestones of the Cuddapah and Kurnool rocks, and Deccan Trap basalt. The rest, mainly along the coast, is Gondwana and younger sedimentary rock and river alluvium. The Krishna-Godavari basin off the coast holds oil and natural gas.

Rivers and lakes

Three large perennial rivers and about ten medium ones drain the state into the Bay of Bengal:

Godavari: enters from Telangana, flows through the gorges of the Eastern Ghats past Polavaram, and spreads into its delta below Rajamahendravaram.
Krishna: forms the border with Telangana, where the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams stand, and reaches the sea through its delta below Vijayawada. Its tributary the Tungabhadra joins it near Kurnool.
Pennar: crosses Rayalaseema and reaches the sea near Nellore.
Vamsadhara and Nagavali: the main rivers of the north, flowing from the Eastern Ghats through Srikakulam district.

Between the Godavari and Krishna deltas lies Kolleru, one of India's largest freshwater lakes and a Ramsar wetland of international importance. In the far south, the brackish Pulicat lagoon is separated from the sea by Sriharikota island, home of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Climate

Andhra Pradesh has a tropical climate, with hot summers and mild winters; the coast is humid, and the interior of Rayalaseema hot and dry. The state receives about 950 mm of rain a year, a little more than half from the south-west monsoon (June to September) and much of the rest from the north-east monsoon (October to December), which brings most of the year's rain to the southern coast. Rainfall ranges from under 600 mm around Anantapur, one of the driest parts of India, to over 1,150 mm around Srikakulam in the north-east. Cyclones from the Bay of Bengal strike the coast in some years, mainly before and after the monsoon.

Forests and farming

Recorded forests cover 37,258 sq km, about 23 per cent of the state, mostly dry and moist deciduous forest in the Eastern Ghats. The Seshachalam hills are the home of red sanders, and the Coringa mangroves line the Godavari delta. The Godavari and Krishna deltas are among India's great rice bowls; groundnut, cotton, chillies, tobacco, sugarcane and fruit such as mangoes are also grown widely, and the coast is a leading producer of fish and prawns.

Sources: Central Ground Water Board (land, rocks, rivers and rainfall), the Forest Survey of India (area and forests, India State of Forest Report 2019) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Ramsar sites).