DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND GEOLOGY Government of Andhra Pradesh DISTRICT SURVEY REPORT PRAKASAM DISTRICT Prepared by ISO 9001:2015 ANDHRA PRADESH SPACE APPLICATIONS CENTRE (APSAC) Planning Department, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS APSAC wishes to place on record its sincere thanks to Sri B.Sreedhar IAS, Secre- tary to the Government (Mines) and the Director, Department of Mines and Geolo- gy, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh for entrusting the work for preparation of District Sur- vey Reports of Andhra Pradesh. The team gratefully acknowledge the help of the Commissioner, Horticulture Department, Govt of Andhra Pradesh and the Director, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Planning Department, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh for providing valuable statistical data and literature. The Project team is also thankful to all Joint Directors, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors and the staff of Mines and Geology Department for their overall support and guidance dur- ing the execution of this work. Also sincere thanks are due to the scientific staff of APSAC who has generated all the thematic maps. VICE CHAIRMAN APSAC Contents 1. Salient Features of Prakasam District ...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Administrative Setup ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Drainage ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Climate and Rainfall.................................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Transport and Communications ........................................................................................ 3 1.5 Population and Literacy .......................................................................................................... 4 1.6 Industrial Economy ................................................................................................................... 5 1.7 Topography .................................................................................................................................. 5 1.8 Important Places ........................................................................................................................ 6 1.8a Places of Tourist Interest ..................................................................................................... 7 1.8b Places of Religious and Cultural importance ............................................................. 7 1.8c Places of Economic and Commercial importance ................................................ 8 2. Land Utilization, Forest and Slope of Krishna District .................................................... 10 2.1 Land Use / Land Cover Classification ........................................................................... 10 2.2 Slope Map of the District ...................................................................................................... 24 2.3 Forest Cover Distribution ...................................................................................................... 26 3. Agricultural Resources and Soils in the District ................................................................ 28 3.2 Kharif and Rabi crop acreage Estimation using Optical Remote sensing data: .................................................................................................................................................... 29 3.3 Soils: ............................................................................................................................................... 31 3.4 Salt affected and waterlogged areas: ............................................................................ 32 4. Wildlife Protected Area .................................................................................................................. 38 4.1 Marine Protected Area:.......................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Wild Life Sancturay ................................................................................................................. 38 5. Coastal and Aquaculture resources ....................................................................................... 39 5.1 Aquaculture in Prakasam District .................................................................................... 40 6. Surface Water and Irrigation Resources of the District ................................................. 44 6.1 Major and Medium Irrigation Projects in Prakasam District ............................... 44 6.2 Major Irrigation Project .......................................................................................................... 44 6.3 Medium Irrigation Project .................................................................................................... 44 6.4 Tank Information System ..................................................................................................... 46 7. Geology and Mineral Resources of Prakasam District .................................................. 49 7.1 Geology ......................................................................................................................................... 49 7.3 Geomorphology of the District .......................................................................................... 54 7.3.a Landforms of fluvial origin ..................................................................................................... 54 7.3.b. Landforms of coastal origin ................................................................................................ 56 7.3.c. Landforms of Structural Origin........................................................................................... 59 7.3.d. Landforms of denudational origin.................................................................................... 60 7.4 Structural Features of Prakasam District...................................................................... 62 7.5 Ground Water Prospects in the District......................................................................... 63 8. Ground Water Quality in the Prakasam District ................................................................ 66 9. Details of Major and Minor Mineral Resources ................................................................. 68 10. References.................................................................................................................................... 137 1. Salient Features of Prakasam District Prakasam District was constituted on the 2nd of February, 1971 by carving out por- tions of Guntur, SPS Nellore and Kurnool districts. It was renamed as Prakasam district in 1972 in memory of the eminent freedom fighter Sri Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu who was the Chief Minister of the composite Madras state and the first Chief Minister of Andhra State. Prakasam District is surrounded, on the East by the Bay of Bengal, the west side by Kurnool district, Nellore & Cuddapah Districts are at south side and on the North it is partly covered by Guntur district. The district is located in the tropical region between the 14º 57’ 28” to 16º 18’ 00” at Northern lati- tude and 78º 44’ 00” to 80º 28” 34” at Eastern longitude. Prakasam district covered an area of 17,626 sq. km. The district occupied 6.41 % of the total area of the state. Prakasam district is bigger district compare with the other coastal districts and fourth largest district in Andhra Pradesh in extent. The district has 102 km of coastal line spreading over 10 mandals. 1.1 Administrative Setup After Independence, the present district became a part of Kurnool, Guntur and Nel- lore, which were in the erstwhile composite Madras State. In 1953, when the An- dhra State was formed, this district continued to be in the same position. Even af- ter the formation of the State of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, there was no change in the position of the district, which continued till 1970. In 1971, the separate district of Prakasam was formed with the amalgamation of certain parts belonging to the districts of Kurnool, Guntur and Nellore. At the time of its formation, the district consisted of 9 taluks, which were divided into 3 revenue divisions. These nine ta- luks include Ongole, Addanki, Chirala, Markapur, Giddalur, Kandukur, Kanigir, Darsi and Podili. After the introduction of the system of revenue mandals, in 1986, the 9 taluks of the district were reorganized in to 56 mandals (Fig.1). Page 1 of 134 Fig.1 Administrative Boundaries of Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh 1.2 Drainage Gundlakamma, Musi, Maneru, Paleru, Romperu are the major rivers flowing in the district. The river of Gundlakamma, flows the length of 220 Kms. Maneru river, Paleru river, Romperu river are the life-giving sources of this district for drinking water and irrigation purposes. Cumbum, Veligonda, Gundlakamma, Mopadu and Rallapadu reservoirs are built for irrigation and drinking purposes on the major riv- ers in the district. There are also other minor rivers like the Tammileru, Sagileru and Gudisaleru and streams like Vaguru vagu, Nallavagu, Vedimangala vagu that flow in limited parts of the district. Drainage pattern over the Prakasam District is shown in Fig. 2. Page 2 of 134 Fig.2 Drainage Network and Surface Water bodies of the District 1.3 Climate and Rainfall In Prakasam district,