Palkonda Hills are a range of hills that form a part of the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

in the

southern India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...

n state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. Meaning "milk hills", they run along a northwest to southeast direction, culminating at the pilgrimage centre of

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

Etymology

The name ''Palkonda'' translates into "milk hills", a combination of the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

words ''pāl'' meaning milk and ''konda'' meaning hill. The name is attributed to the presence of

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

grounds in them.

Geographical extent

The Palkonda range has a southeast to northwest orientation and traverse the districts of

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city is loca ...

and

Kadapa Kadapa (colonial spelled Cuddapah) is a city in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located in the Rayalaseema region, and is the district headquarters of YSR Kadapa district. As of the 2022 Census of India, the city had a popula ...

. These hills average 2,000 ft in elevation. The highest point of the range is at Buttaid where it reaches a height of 3,060 ft. A westward extension of the range in Anantapur forms the

Seshachalam Hills Seshachalam Hills are hilly ranges part of the Eastern Ghats in southern Andhra Pradesh state, in southeastern India. The Seshachalam hill ranges are predominantly present in Tirupati district of the Rayalaseema region in Andhra Pradesh, India. ...

Geology

The Palkonda hills are relict mountains that can be traced back to the

Cambrian period The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

. They have over the course of over 500 million years been eroded by the

Penner river Penna (also known as Pinakini, Pennar, Penner, Penneru (Telugu), Pennai (Tamil)) is a river of southern India. This is a unique river in world where after originating from Nandi hills, it flows as two different streams, one in North and South ...

and its tributaries. The hills are largely composed of

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

formations interspersed with

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

and

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

deposits.

Rivers

The Punchu and

Cheyyeru Cheyyeru is a village in Katrenikona Mandal, located in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-la ...

are important rivers of this region and, along with the Chitravati and Papagni rivers, form a series of river basins that marks the middle course of the Penner river of which they are tributaries. There are several streams between the Palkonda and its parallel range Velikonda that have been dammed to irrigate the valleys between the ranges. Jowar and groundnut are the principal crops cultivated here.

Flora and fauna

There are

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

forests in these hills and it is also a habitat of the highly endangered

Jerdon's courser Jerdon's courser (''Rhinoptilus bitorquatus'') is a nocturnal bird belonging to the pratincole and courser family Glareolidae endemic to India. The bird was discovered by the surgeon-naturalist Thomas C. Jerdon in 1848 but not seen again until i ...

Human habitations

The sacred hill of

Tirumala Tirumala is a spiritual town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the suburbs of the Tirupati, Tirupati urban agglomeration. The town is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority and located in Tirupa ...

and temple town of

lies at the southeastern end of the Palkonda range. The

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

railway line is an important transport artery that runs parallel to the hills through Guntakal and

Renigunta Renigunta is a neighbourhood and suburb of Tirupati located in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Tirupati Airport is located in Renigunta. It is a part of Tirupati urban agglomeration. It is also the mandal headquarters of ...

References

{{Eastern Ghats, state=collapsed Hills of Andhra Pradesh Eastern Ghats Geography of Anantapur district Geography of Kadapa district