Swarnamukhi

The Swarnamukhi is an East Flowing river basin having a small catchment area of 3,225 Sq.Km. It rises at an elevation of 300 m in the Eastern Ghat ranges near Pakala village in Chittur district of Andhra Pradesh at North latitude 13° 28' and East longitude 79° 09'. It runs generally in the North-Eastern direction passing through the famous Tirupati hills before joining into the Bay of Bengal. Its total length is 130 Km. This is an independent river and has no major tributaries and therefore its flow depends only on rainfall in its upper catchment.

The average annual rainfall in the Swarnamukhi basin decreases from 1270 mm at the Eastern extremity of the basin to 762 mm at the Western extremity. The North- East monsoon sets in the month of October and withdraws by the end of November. The mean of maximum temperature in the catchment varies from 30º C to 32º C and minimum between 22.5º C to 25 ºC.