Penner
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Penner
(Uttara Pindkini or Northern Pennar). River of Southern India which rises on Channarayan-betta, to the north-west of Nandi- droog in the Kolar District of Mysore, and running north-west past Goribidniir, enters the Anantapur District of Madras, at one point again crossing Mysore in a projecting part of the Pavugada taluk (Tumkur District). Some distance north of Anantapur it turns to the east, and passing through Cuddapah and Nellore Districts, falls into the sea below Nellore town. Its tributaries from Mysore are the Jayamangali, Chitravati, and Papaghni.
In Anantapur District the Penner runs for the most part in a wide and sandy bed. It comes down in sudden freshes (generally in October and November) for two or three days at a time, and then as quickly dries up again. In Cuddapah it is joined on its right bank by the Chitravati, and the two streams have forced a passage for them- selves through the picturesque gorge of GANDIKOTA, about a mile long and 300 feet deep. Lower down the Papaghni flows into it, and thereafter, as it winds through the Eastern Ghats, its course again becomes wild and beautiful.
The river enters Nellore District through a narrow gap in the Ghats near Somasila, and thenceforward is for the first time rendered useful for irrigation. From Sornasila to Sangam, a distance of 25 miles, it waters about 5,000 acres from inundation channels. At Sangam it is crossed by a dam, built in 1886, which is 4,072 feet long. On the left bank of the river this dam supplies the great Kanigiri reservoir, and thus irrigates 86,000 acres; and a channel is being constructed from it on the right bank, which will fill the Nellore reservoir and water 10,000 more. Lower down the river, at Nellore town, a dam constructed in 1855 was repaired and brought into its present shape
by Sir A. Cotton in 1858. The channels from it supply 64,000 acres
of land on the right bank. Altogether the river irrigates 155,000 acres in this District, yielding a revenue of 3 1/4 lakhs, or about 5 1/3 per cent, upon the capital of 6r lakhs which has been invested. The great Tungabhadra Project now in contemplation proposes to turn much of the surplus water of the Tungabhadra into the Penner, and this water would be utilized in Nellore District by constructing a high dam across the narrow gap at Somasila and forming a huge reservoir there. It is calculated that channels from this on both sides of the river would command 500,000 acres.
The Penner is crossed by the Madras Railway at Penneru in Anantapur District, and by the East Coast section of the same rail- way at Nellore, near its mouth.
