Page:Madras District Gazetteers - Anantapur.pdf/25

channel narrows and is dotted with rocks. In the upper part of its course its margins are olten prettily wooded with tamarinds and cocoanut palms. It is nota perennial stream, but comes down in freshes for short periods and thereafter, except for a small trickle in the middle of its sandy bed, dries up again almost at once. The irrigation under it is referred to in Chapter IV below. There are no road bridges over it, but it is crossed near P4midi by the Guntakal-Dharmavaram railway and in Tadpatri taluk by the North- west line of the Madras Railway.

The Chitravati is the second most notable river in the district. It rises, like the Pennér, in Mysore (in the Hariharésvara hill, north of Nandidrug), and enters the district not far from Kédikonda in the Hindupur taluk. Thence it flows nearly due north in a channel which for the most part runs between steep, high banks until, near Pedapalle, it reaches the high rocky uplands which stretch between the Mallappakonda and Penukonda ranges. Here it has forced a passage for itself through these downs and runs swiftly along a fine rocky gorge. After several most picturesque miles, it emerges into the plain of Bukkapatnam and flows sedately in a broad, shallow, sandy bed into the big tank which has been prepared for its recep- tion at that place. From the waste weirs of this reservoir it flows, still in a northerly direction, into Dharmavaram taluk. Here it ig joined by several affluents and it is eventually again dammed up at Dharmavaram to form the great tank there. Leaving the waste weirs of this, it is again met by other streams and eventually becomes a considerable river which turns eastwards and runs by a narrow channel through the south of the Muchukéta hills and across part of the Tadpatri taluk, eventually falling into the Pennér near the famous Gandikéta gorge in Cuddapah district. Like the Pennér, the Chitravati comes down in freshets and then quickly again dries up. Of late years the supply in it has been reduced by the diversion of its upper waters fer irrigation purposes within the Mysore State.

Besides the Jayamangali already referred to, there are three or four other largish streams which, as they supply irrigation channels or tanks, deserve a passing mention. The Kusdvati in Hindupur , taluk is a tributary of the Chitravati. In Madakasfra the Swarnamukhi flows down to join the Hagari. The Tadakaléru rises in the southernmost portion of the Ndgasamudram line of hills and flows north-eastwards into the Singanamalla tank. Just before it énters this it is joined by the Pandaméru, a stream which rises alongside of it and first supplies the Anantapur tank and then runs on over the waste weir of this into the Singanamalia valley,

Except parts of the western sides of Gooty, Kalyandrug and Madakasira taluks, which slope towards the Hagari, the whole of