BharatSangraha

Telangana · Deccan Inland Plateau

Terrain and eco-zones

Semi-arid to dry sub-humid, with 750–900 mm falling almost entirely between June and September and very little after. The plateau sits at 300–600 m, which takes the edge off nothing — May afternoons run to 43–45 °C in the Godavari valley, and the rock holds the heat into the night. The rainfall is not so much low as unreliable: a normal total delivered in a handful of intense events, which is precisely the problem a tank cascade is built to solve.

Landforms

Deccan trap basalt in the north and west, Archaean granite and gneiss through the centre and southGranite tor fields and balancing boulders around Hyderabad, Bhongir and Warangal — the oldest exposed rock in the countryRed gravelly chalka soils on the uplands, black regur in the Godavari and Manjeera valleysCascading tank valleys — shallow, wide, and engineered end to endThe Godavari gorge and the teak forest belt of the northNallamala scarp along the southern Krishna

Rivers and waters

Godavari — the northern boundary and the region's only large perennial flow, entered at Basar and left at BhadrachalamKrishna — the southern limit, running in a deep trench past Nagarjunasagar and AlampurManjeera — Godavari tributary, the western drainage and Hyderabad's older water supplyMusi — the Krishna tributary Hyderabad was built on, and which destroyed much of it in the flood of 1908Maner, Pranahita, Kinnerasani, Kadem and Peddavagu in the northTungabhadra along the Palamuru edge, meeting the Krishna at Alampur

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
Ela (summer)March–June28–45 °CTanks bottom out, ambali replaces cooked food in the fields, and the mango and neem flower. Ugadi opens the year at the start of it.
Varsha (monsoon)June–September24–33 °CThe tanks fill from the top of each cascade downwards. Bonalu falls in Ashadam at the front of it and Bathukamma at the tail, when the tank bunds are in flower.
Sarad (post-monsoon)October–November20–32 °CDasara, Bathukamma immersion and the second crop sown on stored tank water.
Sishira (winter)December–February13–29 °CDry, clear and short. Sankranti, sakinalu frying, the jatara season, and the only comfortable window for the fort and temple landscape.

Best time to visitNovember to February for everything outdoors. Late September or early October if the point is Bathukamma, and Ashadam (July) for Bonalu — both move with the lunar calendar, so check the date. Ramzan is the haleem season and shifts through the year; Medaram's jatara is biennial and falls in Magha (January–February) of even years.

The climate, landforms, rivers and seasons of Telangana, and the best time of year to visit. (4)