Kurnool Tungabhadra Sheep Wool Deccani Farming Andhra Pradesh

Kurnool district on the Tungabhadra river — historically the Nawab of Kurnool's territory and briefly Andhra State's first capital (1953) — grows groundnut, cotton, and jowar on the Deccan black cotton soil, and the district's pastoral communities rear Deccani and Nellore sheep for wool and meat production on the dry thorn scrub grasslands of the Nallamala hills. The Deccani sheep's coarse wool is used for durrie and rug weaving in the district's handloom clusters, and Nellore sheep meat (Nellore lamb) is prized in Andhra Pradesh's mutton biryani and curries. Kurnool's Amrabad Tiger Reserve in the Nallamala hills — one of India's largest Tiger Reserves — protects the Nallamala forest's tiger population and the adjacent Krishna river's gharial habitat.