District Survey Report - 2018 DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND GEOLOGY Government of Andhra Pradesh DISTRICT SURVEY REPORT VIZIANAGARAM DISTRICT Prepared by ANDHRA PRADESH SPACE APPLICATIONS CENTRE (APSAC) DMG, GoAP 1 District Survey Report - 2018 Planning Department, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to the Secretary to Government (Mines) and the Director, Department of Mines and Geology, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh for entrusting the work for preparation of District Survey Reports of Andhra Pradesh. We gratefully acknowledge the help of the Director, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Planning Department, Govt. of A.P. for providing valuable literature. We owe a great deal to Sri. G.Sreenivas Choudhary, Deputy Director, (Mines) for his overall support and guidance during the execution of this work. We are also thankful to the Assistant Directors of Mines and Geology of Vijayawada and Nandigama offices for their support in providing information. Our sincere thanks are due to the scientific staff of APSAC who has generated all the thematic maps. VICE CHAIRMAN APSAC DMG, GoAP 2 District Survey Report - 2018 Table of Contents ........................................................................................... 6 1. Salient Features of Vizianagaram District .................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Administrative Setup ...................................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Drainage ................................................................................................................... 12 1.3 Climate and Rainfall ................................................................................................................................. 16 1.4 Air Pollution ................................................................................................. 17 1.5 Transport and Communications ............................................................................................................. 21 1.6 Population and Literacy ........................................................................................ 25 1.7 Aquaculture in Vizianagaram District ............................................................. 29 1.8 Status Of Shoreline Change in Vizianagaram District ......................................................................................................................... 33 1.9 Important Places ................................................................................................... 33 1.9.1 Places of Tourist Interest ............................................................ 35 1.9.2 Places of Economic and Commercial importance ........................................................................... 36 2. Ground Water Prospects of Vizianagaram District ......................................................................................................... 36 2.1 Geomorphology of the District ....................................................................................................... 36 2.1.a. Landforms of fluvial origin ....................................................................................................................................... 39 Channel Bar: DMG, GoAP 3 District Survey Report - 2018 ..................................................................................................... 39 2.1.b Landforms of Coastal origin .................................................................................................... 40 2.1.c. Landforms of Structural Origin ............................................................................................ 41 2.1.d. Landforms of denudational origin ................................................................................. 42 2.2 Structural Features of Vizianagaram District ........................................................................................ 43 2.3 Ground Water Prospects in the District .............................................................................................. 46 2.4 Ground Water Quality of the District .................................................................... 49 3. Surface Water and Irrigation Resources of the District ............................................................................................. 49 3.1 River Basins in Vizianagaram District ..................................................................................................................... 50 3.2 Minor Irrigation Tanks ........................................................................................... 52 3.3. Major and Medium Irrigation Projects ................................................................................................................ 54 3.4 Tank Information System ............................................................ 55 4. Land Utilization, Forest and Slope of Vizianagaram District ........................................................................................... 55 4.1 Land Use / Land Cover Classification ................................................................................................................ 74 4.2 Slope Map of the District ................................................................................................................ 78 4.3 Forest Cover Distribution ................................................................................................ 81 5. Agricultural Resources in the District ................................................................................................................ 82 5.1 Crop Acreage Estimation ........................................................................................ 82 5.2 Kharif Rice Estimation using SAR data DMG, GoAP 4 District Survey Report - 2018 ................................................................................ 86 6. Geology and Mineral Resources of the District .................................................................................................... 86 6.1 Geology of Vizianagaram District .................................................................................. 89 6.2 Mineral Resources of Vizianagaram District ...................... 91 7. Details of Major and Minor Minerals Their Production and Revenue in the District .............................................................. 91 7.1 Administrative Set-Up of DMG in Vizianagaram District: ................................................................................. 92 7.2 Overall view of Mining Activity in the District DMG, GoAP 5 District Survey Report - 2018 1. Salient Features of Vizianagaram District Vizianagaram District with its district headquarters at Vizianagaram town is the north coastal district of Andhra Pradesh state. It is surrounded on the East by Srikakulam District, on the South and West by Visakhapatnam district, on the South-East by Bay of Bengal, and on North-West by Odisha state.The district is formed in the year 1979 by carving out certain border parts from both the neighbouring districts of Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam. The district derives its name from the most popular and historical town in the region ‘Vizianagaram’. It lies between 17º 15’ and 19º 15’ of the North latitude and 83º 00’’ and 83º 45’ of East longitude which extends over an area of 6539 Sq. Kms. with a coastline of 29 Kms. 1.1Administrative Setup The District is divided into 2 Revenue Divisions (Vizianagaram and Parvathipuram), 34 Mandals, 14 towns and 1,520 villages. The District is naturally divided into Coastal Plains and Upland Zones. The district’s northern region is under Parvatipuram revenue division and comprises mostly of agency tract with hill ranges viz., Dumakonda, Antikonda, Palakonda, Kodagandi and Gamatikonda. These are part of Eastern Ghats and they run North-East to South-West direction parallel to the coast. The height of these hills is 914 metres on an average, where the heighest peak is found at 1615 metres. These hilly areas are seen with dense forest grown with wooded trees and nature’s beautiful locations. There are 3 parliamentary and 9 assembly constituencies in the district. The five municipalities in DMG, GoAP 6 District Survey Report - 2018 Vizianagaram district are 1.Vizianagaram, 2.Bobbili, 3.Salur and 4.Bobbili and 5.Parvatipuram. DMG, GoAP 7 District Survey Report - 2018 Fig.1 Administrative Boundaries of Vizianagaram District DMG, GoAP 8 District Survey Report - 2018 Fig.2 Administrative Boundaries draped on Satellite Image of Vizianagaram District DMG, GoAP 9 District Survey Report - 2018 1.2Drainage There are six rivers draining the district, viz. Nagavali, Gosthani, Suvarnamukhi, Champavathi, Vegavathi, and Gomukhi. They originate in the Eastern Ghats and after flowing through the district, finally join Bay of Bengal. The Nagavali is the main river that flows for 112 KM in the district and joins the sea near Mofuzbander, Srikakulam district. It is also known as Langulya, has 200 KM of total length and has a catchment area of 8,964 KM. It originates in Odisha state and flows through Komarada, Jiyyammavalasa and Garugubilli mandals before entering in to Srikakulam district. The important tributaries of the Nagavali River are Suvarnamukhi, Vegavathi, Janjhavathi and Vottigedda. The Gostani River originates in the Ananthagiri forest area of Srungavarapukota near Borra caves. It flows through Jami