River
Krishna River
1,400 km from source to mouth · India.
IndiaFlows into Bay of Bengal4th longest in India
In numbers
Length
1,400km
Average flow
1,600m³/s
Basin
258,948km²
Drop
649m
from 649 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,400 km of river and 34 stops on the way: 22 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMahabaleshwarat 649 m
- 59 kmKoynanagar28,091 people
- 60 kmShivasagar lake87 km²
- 86 kmPātan13,779 people
- 124 kmMalkapur32,000 people
- 126 kmKarād55,663 people
- 127 kmKoyna Rivertributary
- 131 kmGayatri Rivertributary
- 132 kmHajarmachi9,317 people
- 226 kmIrwin Bridge
- 227 kmSāngli601,214 people
- 237 kmJaisingpur48,510 people
- 269 kmKurandvād22,372 people
- 282 kmShiraguppi25,000 people
- 297 kmPanchganga Rivertributary
- 324 kmKudachi23,154 people
- 370 kmRabkavi73,835 people
- 534 kmMalaprabha Rivertributary
- 703 kmBhima Rivertributary
- 712 kmShaktinagar17,088 people
- 827 kmTungabhadra Rivertributary
- 933 kmSrīsailain24,142 people
- 933 kmSrisailam Project RFC Township21,452 people
- 933 kmSrisailam Reservoir536 km²
- 1,033 kmNāgārjuna Sāgar196 km²
- 1,035 kmVijayapuri North15,887 people
- 1,080 kmMusi Rivertributary
- 1,215 kmIbrāhīmpatnam29,432 people
- 1,219 kmGuntupalle11,187 people
- 1,229 kmVijayawada1,048,240 people
- 1,230 kmTādepalle64,149 people
- 1,236 kmYanamalakuduru34,177 people
- 1,238 kmTādigadapa17,462 people
- 1,295 kmPenumudi–Puligadda Bridge
- 1,298 kmAvanigadda25,761 people
- 1,400 kmBay of Bengalat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Third longest river in central−southern India
At the mouth it carries 1,641 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.5 seconds. It drops from 649 m to 0 m, 0.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 258,948 km², about the size of GA. 84.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from September to October; lowest: from February to May. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 77% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- VijayawadaLargest city on its banks · 1,048,240 people
- Vijayawada International Airport (VGA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 20 km from the cityCar hire at HYD airport (Hyderabad)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water21 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Krishna River, month by month
Highest water: from September to October
Lowest water: from February to May. Best months to visit: from November to February.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 6,700 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Krishna River: the basin in numbers
258,781 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 84.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 327/km²people per km²
- 525maverage altitude of the basin
- 834mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.1°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 1.2%covered by lakes
- 49km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 16% Forest
- 72% Cropland
- 4% Pasture
- 8% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Krishna River: what you find on the way
- 11Weirs
- 1Boat ramps
- 19Ferry piersNagarjunakonda Launch Terminal and 18 more
- 1MarinasAmaravati Boats
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Krishna River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
1island off the mouthIslandyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Shivasagar lakekm 5987km²
- Srisailam Reservoirkm 907536km²
- Nāgārjuna Sāgarkm 1,004196km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Islands off the mouth (1)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Diviseema11 km away78km²
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Krishna River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (11)
Also: Musi River, Tunga River, Koyna River, Malaprabha River, Ghataprabha River, Panchganga River, Nira River, Gayatri River, Venna River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q193499) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas, Islandyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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