Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh is situated on the southern coast of India. It lies between 12041’ and 220N latitude and 770 and 88040’E longitude. AP shares boundaries with Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa from the north, the Bay of Bengal from the East, Tamil Nadu from the south and Karnataka from the west. It is the fourth largest by area and fifth largest by population. The state has the second-largest coastline among all the states in India. Hyderabad is the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh was formed on November 1st, 1956 by the State Reorganisation Act.

Telugu and Urdu are the official languages of Andhra Pradesh. However, English, Hindi, Kannada and Tamil languages are also used widely.

Vishakhapatnam is the main seaport of Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh comprises 23 districts. Vijayawada is the major trading centre in AP. Andhra’s other important cities are Warangal, Vizianagaram, Eluru, Bhimavaram, Guntur, Tirupati, Srikakulum, Kakinada, Anantapur, Kurnool, Tenali, Machilipatnam, Ongole, Nellore, Nazimabad, Ramagudum, Karimnagar, Kadapa, Khammam and Gudivada.

The Godavari and the Krishna rivers run across the state.

Andhra Pradesh is called the “Rice Bowl of India”, as it accounts for 77% of rice.

Agriculture is the main source of Andhra income. Andhra is major producer of rice, sugarcane, cotton, chilli pepper, mango and tobacco in India.

Rice is the staple food of Andhra Pradesh. There is Hyderabadi Biryani, the world famous dish. Most non-vegetarian dishes of Andhra include lamb, chicken and fish.

Kuchipudi is the classical dance of Andhra Pradesh. There various other dance forms also exist, namely Bonalu, Dappu, Chenchu Bhagotham, Bhamakalapam, Burrakatha, Veeranatyam, Butta Bommalu, Tappeta Gallu, Lambadi, Dhimsa, Kolattam and Chindu.

Similar to India’s Bollywood, there is Tollywood in Andhra Pradesh. It produces the largest number of movies in India per year. There are many composers of Caranatic Music. The renowned artistic figures are Annamacharya, Tyagaraja, Kashetryya, Syama Shastri and Bhadrachalla Ramadasu.

About 3.2 million tourists visit Andhra Pradesh each year. There are over 600 tourist attractions across the state. Andhra has 1000 kms of pristine golden beaches. There is the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, conserving a varied collection of sculptures, paintings and religious artefacts.

Andhra Pradesh is well connected by rail, road, air and water. There are Visakhapatnam Airport, Vijayawada Airport, Rajamundry Airport and Tirupati Airport in Andhra Pradesh. But Andhra’s main aerodrome is Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh has two major ports: Visakhapatnam and Kakinada and three minor ports: Krishnapatnam, Machilipatnam and Nizampatnam.