The 25 km radial zone of the project area was extensively studied by Indian Resources Information and Management Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (IN-RIMT), Hyderabad using remote sensing techniques (Anon, 1994b). The study area is interspersed with hills near the Nagarjunasagar Reservoir and rolling plains towards the north and north-east of the reservoir. The hill slopes are characterized by degraded forests with barren rocky patches and steep sloping areas (Plate 1). Small patches of good forest is observed towards the south-eastern part of the reservoir. The forest boundaries were adopted from S.O.I. topographic sheets and the area accounts for 361.99 km2 (18.42%) of the study area. The good forest occupies 2.92 km2 (0.15%) and the degraded forest occupies 359.07 km2 (18.27%) in the study area. The total waste lands account for 357.28 km2 (18.19%). The major settlements mapped in the study area are North Vijayapuri, South Vijayapuri, Macherla, Gurazala, Miriyalaguda etc. Table 1 furnishes the details of the existing landuse within the 25 km radial zone.

Table 1. Land use within 25 km radial zone of the proposed project site.

 (Source: IN-RIMT, Hyderabad 1994)

Other areas of ecological significance within the 25 km radial zone include Ethipothalla, an important reintroduction site for Mugger Crocodile. Krishna, Hallia and Chandravanka that form the major river network, in the radial zone and also the source of water for Nagarjunasagar Tiger Reserve and Nagarjunasagar Reservoir are important wetlands of ecological significance in the area surveyed (Fig. 2).

Although the details of existing landuse in the vicinity of the proposed project could be made available from the studies conducted by IN-RIMT, Hyderabad, the details of actual diversion of different landuse categories particularly of the Reserved Forest for setting up of power station and other project activities were not made known inspite of the fact that the WII team expressed repeatedly the need for the same.