AP Geography Notes for APPSC & SI: Rivers, Districts and Ports

Andhra Pradesh geography looks like a long list of names: rivers, dams, districts, ports, lakes. Candidates who treat it as a list tend to lose marks on questions that reverse two adjacent items or mix up a category. Candidates who treat it as one connected system tend to answer the same questions in seconds. These AP geography notes follow the second approach, and they are written for APPSC, AP Police SI and Constable preparation.

The notes are a compact companion to the full study book, AP Geography: Rivers, Districts, Ports and Projects, which adds district-by-district cards, schematic maps and six practice sets. If you want the wider picture of recruitments first, the Andhra Pradesh state exams pillar guide maps the exams, and the Andhra Pradesh hub collects the state resources in one place. This post has been expanded and re-checked against official sources in October 2026, and a Telugu version is available at AP భౌగోళిక శాస్త్ర నోట్స్: నదులు, జిల్లాలు, ఓడరేవులు.

Verify before you rely on it: district counts, port status, reservoir levels and project completion are date-sensitive. Every such figure below carries an "as on" date and a source name. Check the current official notification for anything that may have changed.

1. Read the state as a corridor, not a list

The most useful habit is to think in corridors. Water falls on an upland catchment, descends through a cultivable plain and reaches a delta, lagoon or harbour on the Bay of Bengal. A district, a river and a port are parts of one corridor rather than three separate facts. When you meet a question about Rajamahendravaram, for example, you should immediately see the Godavari, the barrage at Dowleswaram, the delta canals, the paddy-and-coconut economy and the nearby coast with Kakinada, all in one picture. A candidate who has stored these as five separate flashcards has to recall five things; a candidate who has stored one corridor recalls one picture and reads the answer off it.

A good working order for the map has four parts:

• The northern hill and coastal belt, with the hill areas around Araku and Paderu and the short rivers that enter the sea near Srikakulam.
• The central Godavari-Krishna belt, where the coastal plain widens into two deltas separated by the Kolleru lake.
• The southern Penna belt, with the Nellore coast, Pulicat lagoon and the Tirupati hills behind it.
• The dry Rayalaseema interior, a plateau-and-hill country that sits in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats.

The Eastern Ghats are a broken belt, not a single wall. Gaps and valleys let short east-flowing streams reach the coast, and those gaps matter more for transport and drainage than a list of peaks. Low relief on the delta plains helps canals and paddy, but it also slows drainage, so floods and salt intrusion are part of the same story. Keep this idea of cause and consequence in mind: nearly every geography fact in this state has a reason, and the reason is the best memory aid you have.

2. Physical regions in a few lines

Andhra Pradesh is usually described in three physical zones. First, the Eastern Ghats and the hill tracts of the north-east, where the highest ground in the state lies. Second, the long coastal plain with its deltas, lagoons, mangroves and beaches. Third, the interior plateau of the south-west, where hill ranges such as the Nallamala, Veligonda, Seshachalam and Palkonda are separated by river valleys and basins.

For the highest peak, the commonly cited answer is Arma Konda, about 1,680 m, in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district (a Wikipedia cross-check; the page notes it as a peak of the Eastern Ghats). Some lists carry a different Eastern Ghats summit as the highest, so if a question gives a peak name and a height, read its source book before choosing, and treat unusual options with suspicion. The Nallamala hills are the home of the Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, commonly described as India's largest tiger reserve by area (about 3,728 sq km across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a Wikipedia cross-check). The Seshachalam hills are linked in most candidates' minds with the Tirumala temple town and with red sanders, so a question that pairs the hills with a tree species is usually pointing in that direction.

The coastal plain is not uniform. In the north the plain is narrow and the hills come close to the sea. Between the Godavari and Krishna it widens into the two delta systems. South of the Krishna the plain narrows again and becomes sandy, with lagoons and barrier features near Pulicat. The interior, by contrast, has hard crystalline rocks, thin soils and low, variable rainfall, which is why tank and groundwater irrigation matter so much there and why transfer schemes, discussed below, were designed for it.

3. The five river systems in north-to-south order

Draw a slanted coastline and place five rivers from the Odisha border southwards: Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Godavari, Krishna and Penna. Attach one structure to each. This single sketch covers a large share of the river questions.

River	Origin and key idea	Structure to attach
Vamsadhara	Rises near Lanjigarh, Kalahandi (Odisha); joins the sea at Kalingapatnam	Gotta Barrage, Srikakulam region
Nagavali	Rises near Lakhbahal, Kalahandi (Odisha); separate basin from the Vamsadhara	Thotapalli barrage, Madduvalasa reservoir
Godavari	Rises at Trimbakeshwar, Nashik (Maharashtra)	Polavaram (upstream), Dowleswaram (delta head)
Krishna	Rises near Mahabaleshwar (Satara, Maharashtra)	Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage
Penna	Rises in the Chenna Kesava hills of the Nandi ranges (Karnataka)	Somasila (Nellore region)

The table's basin facts come from the Central Water Commission and India-WRIS pages listed at the end. Two things are worth noticing. The Vamsadhara and Nagavali both begin in the Kalahandi district of Odisha, so they are inter-state rivers even though they are often taught as "north coastal rivers of Andhra". The CWC puts the Vamsadhara at roughly 254 km with a catchment of about 10,830 sq km, and the Nagavali at about 256 km with a catchment of about 9,510 sq km, of which roughly 95 km of the Nagavali's length lies in Andhra Pradesh. Different books give slightly different lengths for these two rivers, so do not rely on a single digit; rely on the order and the structure pairs.

The smaller coastal streams such as Bahuda, Mahendratanaya, Sarada, Varaha and Tandava respond quickly to intense rain, so a cyclone can cause severe local flooding even on a river with little national fame. The Sarada, for instance, is listed by the CWC as a river of about 122 km that lies wholly in Visakhapatnam district's region. For deeper project-by-project notes, see the companion post on rivers, dams and irrigation projects.

Godavari and Krishna in one glance

India-WRIS gives the Godavari a length of about 1,465 km from its source at about 1,067 m near Trimbakeshwar, with a basin of about 312,813 sq km shared among several states; its largest tributary by drainage is the Pranhita. The Krishna is about 1,400 km long from its source at about 1,337 m near Jor village, close to Mahabaleshwar, with a basin of about 258,948 sq km shared by Maharashtra, Karnataka and the Telugu states, and its important tributaries include the Tungabhadra and Bhima on the right and the Musi and Munneru on the left.

• The Godavari crosses a narrow hill reach near Papikondalu, then opens into a lowland. At Dowleswaram near Rajamahendravaram the barrage system diverts water into the delta canals. Polavaram is upstream of that delta system.
• Near the sea the Godavari splits into distributaries. A distributary leaves the main river; a tributary joins it. Gautami and Vasishta are distributaries and Pranhita and Sabari are tributaries, and the confusion between the two words is a favourite option trap.
• The Krishna chain reads, upstream to downstream within Andhra Pradesh: Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage at Vijayawada, then the delta and the sea. The Tungabhadra is a tributary, not another name for the Krishna, and its large dam is in Karnataka.
• Section 90 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 declared Polavaram a national project. That is a legal fact; it does not mean every component is finished.

The Penna in a few lines

The Penna (also spelled Pennar) is the main river of the dry south. India-WRIS gives it a length of about 597 km and a catchment of about 55,213 sq km, most of which lies in Andhra Pradesh, and lists the Jayamangali, Kunderu, Sagileru, Chitravati, Papagni and Cheyyeru as principal tributaries. The same page notes that Somasila is the only major project in the basin as classed by that listing, although there are many medium projects, such as the Mid Pennar reservoir near Penakacherla in Ananthapuramu district (about 5.17 TMC, according to the Krishna River Management Board's project page) and the Gandikota reservoir in Kadapa district. Remember that the Penna is a river of flashy, seasonal flow: it carries large flood peaks in a short season and very little water for much of the year, which is why storage and inflow from the Krishna system matter to it.

4. What each irrigation structure actually does

Many wrong options exploit loose language. Keep the functional categories separate:

• Storage dam: holds a large seasonal volume for irrigation, power, water supply or flood management.
• Barrage: a gated structure that raises the river level and controls diversion, with far less storage.
• Anicut: a traditional diversion weir.
• Canal: carries water by gravity. A lift scheme raises water by pumps.
• Ayacut: the designed irrigable command, not proof that every acre was watered in a given year.

Revise in two directions: river to project, and project to river. Most errors come from the second direction, where a learner recognises a project name but cannot recall the river beneath it. A good drill is to cover the right column of a table and name the river from the project, then cover the left column and name the project from the river. Do this aloud for five minutes a day and the pairs become automatic.

Official project pages give you precise figures you can use for the type test. The Krishna River Management Board describes Srisailam as a gravity dam built in a deep gorge in the Nallamala hills, about 512 m long at the top with 12 radial crest gates, and an underground power station on the left bank with six reversible units of 150 MW each plus seven units of 110 MW each on the right bank. It describes Nagarjuna Sagar as a masonry dam, about 1,449.6 m long and about 124.7 m high above the deepest foundation, with a full reservoir level of 590 ft and a live storage of 181 TMC above 510 ft, and states that it was inaugurated on 10 December 1955. Pulichintala, which the same board calls the K. L. Rao Sagar project, is described as about 42.24 m high and 2,922 m long with a 46 TMC reservoir and 120 MW of installed power, serving four coastal districts of the older map. Each of these descriptions is a "storage dam" answer, while Prakasam Barrage is a "diversion structure" answer.

5. Interbasin transfers and Rayalaseema

An interbasin transfer moves water from one natural basin to another. Polavaram's planned diversion toward the Krishna basin is one example; the Ministry of Jal Shakti's project note lists a diversion of 80 TMC to the Krishna as a project component. In Rayalaseema, schemes such as Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (drawing on the Srisailam foreshore) and Galeru-Nagari carry Krishna-system water to dry interior districts. The Krishna board's page says that Handri-Neeva was conceived to use about 40 TMC lifted from the Srisailam reservoir near Malyala in Kurnool district, to irrigate about 2.44 lakh hectares in the Kharif season, and to supply drinking water in the Rayalaseema districts of the older map: Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa and Chittoor.

Telugu Ganga links Srisailam to the Tamil Nadu border through a canal of about 408 km with four balancing reservoirs (Velugodu, the SPVB reservoir, Somasila and Kandaleru). The same page says the scheme was formulated to use 29 TMC of Krishna flood flows and 30 TMC of Penna flood flows, and that the three Krishna basin states agreed to spare 5 TMC each, 15 TMC in all, for the drinking-water needs of Chennai. The point to remember is that Telugu Ganga is a conveyance network with an inter-state drinking-water dimension; it is not a river and no part of the Ganga flows in the state.

The rule to remember: these are engineered conveyance schemes, not new rivers. A field may drain naturally toward the Penna yet receive water that started in the Krishna system. Draw natural drainage as solid lines and transfers as arrows, and the confusion disappears. Rayalaseema's problem is also not only low rain. It is variable rain, hard-rock groundwater and distance from perennial supplies.

6. Lagoons, lakes, mangroves and the coast

Water body	Type	Memory anchor
Kolleru	Freshwater lake, wetland sanctuary	Lies between the Godavari and Krishna deltas
Pulicat	Brackish coastal lagoon	Shared with Tamil Nadu; Sriharikota barrier island separates it from the Bay
Coringa	Mangrove sanctuary	Near Kakinada, on the Godavari estuary
Somasila	Constructed reservoir	Stored Penna water

Kolleru was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1999 and a Ramsar wetland in 2002 (Ramsar Sites Information Service and press cross-checks), and it acts as a natural flood cushion between the two deltas. Pulicat is the second-largest brackish lagoon in India after Chilika (a Wikipedia cross-check); most of it lies in Andhra Pradesh and a small part in Tamil Nadu, and the Sriharikota island, which hosts the space launch centre, forms its seaward barrier. Coringa is reported as one of the larger mangrove stretches in India, on the Godavari delta near Kakinada. Treat these descriptions as anchors rather than numbers: the exam asks which is freshwater and which is brackish far more often than it asks the area in hectares.

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways update on the Indian ports sector (data to 31 March 2025) gives 1,053.07 km as the coastline of Andhra Pradesh, while older textbooks and some encyclopedic pages quote about 974 km. The difference comes from the measurement method, so the safest answer in an exam depends on which source the question follows. Recent official documents use 1,053.07 km. Hazards to know: cyclone wind, storm surge, intense rain, river flood, erosion and saline intrusion. Distinguish a hazard (the cyclone) from vulnerability (low-lying settlement, blocked drains). Storm surge and river flood can coincide at a delta outlet and slow drainage, which is why the lowest parts of the delta flood even when the local rainfall is moderate.

7. Climate, soils and the logic behind them

Most of the state has a tropical climate with hot summers. The coast is humid and receives rain from both the south-west monsoon and the north-east (retreating) monsoon, while the interior districts of Rayalaseema, shielded by the Western Ghats, receive less and more erratically. This single fact explains a long chain of other facts: tank irrigation, groundnut and millets in the interior, delta paddy on the coast, the Rayalaseema transfer schemes, and the frequent mention of drought in that region.

For soils, learn the pattern rather than a table. Alluvial soils belong to the deltas and river plains and carry paddy and sugarcane. Black cotton soils are common in parts of the interior and the Krishna-Guntur area and suit cotton and chilli. Red soils are widespread in the south and the uplands and are used for groundnut, millets and horticulture. Coastal sands are used for casuarina, cashew and coconut where water is available. Questions linking a soil to a crop are normally this simple; the trap is a district mix-up rather than a soil mix-up. For the crop side of the story, see the post on agriculture, irrigation and crops.

8. Districts: the 13, 26 and 28 timeline

The district count is the most date-sensitive fact in this post. As on October 2026, the state has 28 districts. The path to this number:

• 13 districts after the 2014 bifurcation of the state.
• 26 districts after the 2022 reorganisation, with new districts formed from 4 April 2022 (the Kakinada district portal quotes the 4 April 2022 date for its own formation).
• 28 districts after Markapuram and Polavaram were added. State cabinet decisions in December 2025 and the Government's notifications of 30-31 December 2025 created them. Wikipedia, which reproduces the Government's own line, states that the two districts were formed with effect from 31 December 2025; some news reports describe the wider reorganisation as taking effect from 1 January 2026. For exams, the commonly stated date is 31 December 2025.

One detail often goes wrong. In late November 2025 the proposal on the table was for three new districts, Polavaram, Markapuram and Madanapalle, which would have made 29. The final decision, reported on 30 December 2025, created only two, and Madanapalle became the headquarters of Annamayya district in place of Rayachoti. So there is no Madanapalle district, and "29 districts" belongs to an abandoned proposal. Markapuram's headquarters is Markapuram, and Polavaram district's headquarters is Rampachodavaram. The Markapuram district portal gives its area as 10,035 sq km and 21 mandals, and describes it as formed from the western part of the former Prakasam district.

Learn the coast first, north to south: Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, then the Godavari districts (Kakinada, East Godavari, Konaseema), the delta side districts of West Godavari and Eluru, the Krishna coast, Guntur-Bapatla-Prakasam and Nellore-Tirupati. Then fill the interior: Alluri Sitharama Raju, Parvathipuram Manyam and Polavaram in the northern hill belt, NTR and Palnadu centrally, and the Rayalaseema districts to the south and west. The district-by-district details live in the 28-district fact sheet.

Always date a district-count answer. "How many in 2022?" and "How many now?" are different questions, and a frozen notification date governs the exam answer.

9. Ports: legal class versus cargo

The same Ministry update (data to 31 March 2025) says Andhra Pradesh has one major port, Visakhapatnam, and 15 non-major ports: Bhavanapadu, Meghavaram, Bheemunipatnam, Gangavaram, Kakinada SEZ, Kakinada Deep Water, Rawa, Narsapur, Machilipatnam, Kalingapatnam, Nakkapalli, Ramayapattanam, Nizamapatnam, Vadarevu and Krishnapatnam. Of those, the document says only five handled cargo in the state: Kakinada Deep Water, Krishnapatnam, Gangavaram, Rawa and Kakinada Anchorage. Note that Kakinada Anchorage appears in the cargo list but not in the list of 15 names, which is a good example of why you should copy lists exactly from the source rather than assume they match.

"Major" is a legal category, not a statement about cargo volume. The Major Ports Authorities Act applies to major ports, while the Indian Ports Act applies to all ports. The Ministry update gives the cargo handled in the state as 186.94 million tonnes in 2024-25 (provisional), compared with 198.53 million tonnes in 2023-24, a decline of 5.84 percent. Non-major ports handled 104.32 million tonnes in 2024-25 against 117.44 million tonnes the year before, a decline of 11.18 percent, while the major port's cargo rose by 1.89 percent. These are dated, provisional figures, so use them for understanding the structure and not as permanent facts. Learn the coast north to south, from the far north-eastern sites through Visakhapatnam-Gangavaram, Kakinada, Machilipatnam and Nizamapatnam, down to Ramayapatnam and Krishnapatnam. A notified or under-construction site is not automatically a cargo-handling port. For industry and cargo context, read the post on minerals, industries, SEZs and ports.

10. Worked examples: how to answer in 20 seconds

Example 1. "Which of the following lies between the Godavari and Krishna deltas?" Picture the coastline, find the two river mouths, and put a freshwater lake in the gap. The answer is Kolleru. Eliminate Pulicat (south, brackish) and Somasila (a reservoir on the Penna).

Example 2. "Pulichintala is located on which river?" Do not search memory for the district. Run the Krishna chain: Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage. The answer is the Krishna.

Example 3. "How many districts does Andhra Pradesh have?" Look for a date in the question. With no date, the safest present-tense answer is 28. With a date before 31 December 2025, the answer is 26 for any date from April 2022, and 13 before that.

Example 4. "Which is the major port of Andhra Pradesh?" The word major is a legal term. The answer is Visakhapatnam, and Krishnapatnam or Gangavaram, though large, are non-major ports.

Example 5. "Which scheme supplies Chennai with Krishna water?" Telugu Ganga, a canal network that passes through Srisailam, Somasila and Kandaleru toward the Tamil Nadu border.

Key facts for exams

• Five rivers, north to south: Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Godavari, Krishna, Penna. Vamsadhara and Nagavali begin in Kalahandi, Odisha.
• Godavari source: Trimbakeshwar, Nashik. Krishna source: near Mahabaleshwar (Jor village, Satara). Penna source: Chenna Kesava hills, Nandi ranges, Karnataka.
• Krishna chain in Andhra Pradesh: Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Prakasam Barrage. Tungabhadra is a tributary.
• Barrage and anicut are diversion structures; dams store water; lift schemes use pumps; ayacut is the designed command.
• Telugu Ganga: Srisailam to the Tamil Nadu border, about 408 km, with 15 TMC for Chennai's drinking water from three Krishna basin states (KRMB project page).
• Coastline: 1,053.07 km in the 2024-25 ports update; 974 km in older sources.
• Ports (as on 31 March 2025, Ministry update): one major port (Visakhapatnam) and 15 non-major ports; five cargo-handling non-major ports.
• Districts: 13, then 26 (April 2022), then 28 (31 December 2025). Markapuram HQ Markapuram; Polavaram district HQ Rampachodavaram; Annamayya HQ Madanapalle.
• Kolleru is freshwater; Pulicat is a brackish lagoon shared with Tamil Nadu.

Common exam traps

1. Mixing the 26-district and 28-district answers without checking the date.
2. Treating "major port" as "busiest port".
3. Calling Prakasam Barrage or Dowleswaram a storage reservoir.
4. Calling a distributary (Gautami) a tributary.
5. Calling Kolleru a sea lagoon, or Pulicat a freshwater lake.
6. Placing Somasila on the Krishna, or Polavaram on the Vamsadhara.
7. Assuming a transfer scheme's beneficiary region shares the source basin.
8. Memorising reservoir levels or cargo ranks as permanent facts.
9. Reading an old parent-district label as proof that a current district does not exist.
10. Believing in a "Madanapalle district" from the abandoned 29-district proposal.

How to revise this in 7 days

• Day 1: Draw the blank coastline with the five rivers and one structure each. Add the sources of the three big rivers.
• Day 2: Krishna chain and Godavari reach; practise reversing the order from memory.
• Day 3: Structure types, Rayalaseema transfers and Telugu Ganga arrows.
• Day 4: Kolleru, Pulicat, Coringa, hazards and the coast; climate and soils.
• Day 5: The 28 districts, coast first, then the interior, with the 2025 changes.
• Day 6: Ports, legal class versus cargo, and the traps list.
• Day 7: Redraw everything blank, then attempt a timed set from the mock test section.

Ten practice questions

1. On which river is Somasila located? a) Krishna b) Penna c) Godavari d) Nagavali Answer: b) Penna, in the Nellore region.

2. Which structure at Vijayawada mainly diverts Krishna water into the delta canals? a) Srisailam dam b) Pulichintala dam c) Prakasam Barrage d) Somasila dam Answer: c) Prakasam Barrage, a diversion structure rather than a large storage reservoir.

3. Gautami and Vasishta are what in relation to the Godavari? a) Tributaries b) Distributaries c) Canals d) Lagoons Answer: b) Distributaries that branch from the main river near the coast.

4. Which lake lies between the Godavari and Krishna deltas and is mainly freshwater? a) Pulicat b) Kolleru c) Chilika d) Somasila Answer: b) Kolleru.

5. Which two districts were created with effect from 31 December 2025, taking the count to 28? a) Madanapalle and Markapuram b) Polavaram and Madanapalle c) Markapuram and Polavaram d) Adoni and Polavaram Answer: c) Markapuram and Polavaram.

6. The two rivers that rise in Kalahandi district of Odisha and reach the sea in the Srikakulam region are: a) Godavari and Krishna b) Vamsadhara and Nagavali c) Penna and Sarada d) Nagavali and Varaha Answer: b) Vamsadhara and Nagavali.

7. According to the Ministry ports update to 31 March 2025, how many non-major ports does Andhra Pradesh have in its list? a) 5 b) 9 c) 15 d) 28 Answer: c) 15, besides one major port at Visakhapatnam.

8. Telugu Ganga was planned to meet which of the following needs, in addition to irrigation? a) Drinking water for Chennai b) Navigation on the Penna c) Cooling water for a power plant d) Flood storage for the Godavari Answer: a) Drinking water for Chennai.

9. Which statement about Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi is correct? a) It is a natural river b) It is a lift-and-canal scheme drawing from the Srisailam foreshore c) It is a barrage on the Penna d) It is a lagoon near Nellore Answer: b) It is a lift-and-canal scheme drawing from the Srisailam foreshore.

10. Which district's headquarters moved from Rayachoti to Madanapalle in the December 2025 reorganisation? a) Annamayya b) Sri Sathya Sai c) Tirupati d) Chittoor Answer: a) Annamayya.

Frequently asked questions

How many districts does Andhra Pradesh have? As on October 2026, 28 districts. The count was 13 after 2014, 26 from April 2022, and 28 after Markapuram and Polavaram were formed with effect from 31 December 2025.

Is there a Madanapalle district? No. A proposal for a Madanapalle district was discussed in November 2025 but the final decision made Madanapalle the headquarters of Annamayya district instead.

Which is the main river of Rayalaseema? The Penna is the main river of the southern interior, but water from the Krishna system also reaches Rayalaseema through transfer schemes such as Handri-Neeva and Telugu Ganga.

Is Polavaram a dam or a district? Both exist. Polavaram is an irrigation project on the Godavari with national-project status under Section 90 of the Reorganisation Act, and Polavaram is also a district formed in December 2025. They are separate facts.

What is the coastline length of Andhra Pradesh? The 2024-25 Ministry ports update gives 1,053.07 km. Older sources quote about 974 km. Use the figure given by the source the question follows.

Which port is the major port? Visakhapatnam. The others are non-major ports under the state maritime board.

Do I need to memorise reservoir levels? No. Levels change daily. Learn the structure, the river and the function, and treat levels as news.

Related reading

• AP rivers, dams and irrigation projects notes
• AP district-wise fact sheet
• AP minerals, industries, SEZs and ports
• AP agriculture, irrigation and crops
• AP Reorganisation Act 2014 explained
• Andhra Pradesh government exams 2026 guide

Where to go next

Use these notes for quick recall, then work through the full AP Geography book for the maps, district cards and explained practice sets. When you want to test recall under time pressure, you can practise map-based and fact-based questions on pareeksha.in, which offers 10 Lakh+ MCQs, 100+ Exams and 5,000+ Full-Length Mocks. Facts that change, such as districts, port operations and project status, must always be confirmed against the latest official notification.

Sources and verification

Pages opened for this revision (official first):

• Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, "Update on the Indian Ports Sector up to 31.03.2025" (shipmin.gov.in): coastline, 15 non-major ports, cargo figures.
• Krishna River Management Board project pages (krmb.gov.in): Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Pulichinthala, Handri Niva Sujala Sravanthi, Telugu Ganga, Mid Pennar.
• Central Water Commission, eastern river basins summary (cwc.gov.in): Vamsadhara, Nagavali and Sarada basin data.
• India-WRIS wiki (indiawris.gov.in): Godavari, Krishna and Pennar basin pages.
• Markapuram and Annamayya district portals (markapuram.ap.gov.in, annamayya.ap.gov.in); Kakinada district portal for the 4 April 2022 formation wording.
• Press reports on the December 2025 cabinet decisions (ETV Bharat, The Hans India, The South First, The News Minute), used for the 28-district decision and the Madanapalle detail.
• Wikipedia pages (Arma Konda, Pulicat Lake, Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, list of districts), used only as cross-checks.

Not verified: the exact Gazette text of the December 2025 notifications could not be opened, so the effective date of 31 December 2025 rests on the Wikipedia line that reproduces the Government's statement and on press reports (some say 1 January 2026 for the wider changes). Height and area figures for Arma Konda, Pulicat and the tiger reserve rest on Wikipedia cross-checks. Check the latest notification before quoting any of these in an answer that needs a legal date.