Nagarjunsagar srisailam tiger reserve

The Nagarjunsagar- Srisailam Tiger Reserve is spread over five districts of Andhra Pradesh in the catchment area of the Krishna River covering a total of 3,728 sq km with a core area of 1200 sq km. The elevation of the area varies from 330 ft to 3009 ft above sea level. The area is mainly surrounded by the Nallamala Hills and Krishna River, but does include cliffs and plains too with features like high hills, deep valleys and gorges adding to the beautification of the nature.

It is typically dry and hot during summers and pleasantly cool during the winters and monsoons here in Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam, with temperate ranging between a maximum of 45 degrees in summer and a minimum of 8 degrees in winters. The region experiences around 700-900 mm of annual rainfall, when the monsoon arrives between June to September (South West Monsoons) and again from October to January (North East Monsoons).

The climate is pleasant and the weather is perfect to travel between October and March. Post April till October, it is too hot and dry to explore outdoors, so it is best to avoid the summer here.

The Nagarjunsagar- Srisailam Tiger Reserve is one of the prime seats of Project Tiger, with a striking hike of tiger population by 130% during 1983-1989. While watching the royal Bengal tiger at the closest range makes the trip to the reserve a thrilling experience, the fauna is enriched with animals like Indian leopard, sloth bear, Ussuri dhole, Indian pangolin, chital, sambar deer, chevrotain, blackbuck, chinkara and chowsingha along with other animals like mugger crocodile, Indian python, Najanaja, Ptyas mucosa, Bengal monitor, Indian Star tortoise and Indian peafowl.

The major attractions of the place are the prevalent reptiles like Ashwamedh writhing skink, Sharma's mabuya lizards and Nagarjunsagar racer snake.

The flora around the reserve is typically southern tropical dry mixed deciduous forest, Hardwickia forest and Deccan thorn scrub forests with species like axlewood, odcha, anjan tree, teak and Indian frankincensegrowing in abundance.