Mancherial is a district in northern Telangana. It was carved out of the erstwhile Adilabad district in 2016, and its headquarters is Mancherial town. It borders Komuram Bheem Asifabad, Adilabad, Nirmal, Jagtial, Peddapalli and Bhoopalapally districts and the state of Maharashtra. The official district website lists 18 mandals, an area of 4,016.46 sq km and a population of 8,07,037. Two rivers, the Godavari and the Pranahita, pass through the district, and paddy is the main crop.
Mancherial is also coal country. The Singareni Collieries and the Jaipur thermal power plant are in the district, along with cement and ceramics factories. The district’s own history page points visitors to three things: the Gudem Gutta temple, a crocodile sanctuary near Chennur and the forests of the Kawal Tiger Reserve. A district tourism brochure published on the official website in 2026 adds hill forts and grassland wildlife.
Places to visit in Mancherial district
Gudem Gutta Sri Satyanarayana Swamy Temple
The Gudem Gutta Sri Satyanarayana Swami Temple is in Gudem village, Dandepalle mandal, about 32 km from Mancherial. It stands on a hillock above the Godavari. The district brochure says the hill was once called Ratnadri, and that the temple is popularly known as the “Annavaram of Telangana”. Pilgrims take a holy dip in the Godavari and perform the Satyanarayana Vratam, especially during Karthika Masam. An Ayyappa temple modelled on Sabarimala stands on an adjoining hill.
Gandhari Khilla (Gandhari Kota)
Gandhari Khilla is a hill fort on sandstone hills near Bokkalagutta village in Mandamarri mandal, about 13 km from Mancherial. The Mancherial-Bellampalli highway passes close by. The fort sits in thick forest with many plant species, including medicinal herbs, and has not been fully excavated. The Gandhari Maisamma temple is inside the fort. Our article on the fort describes rock-cut images, wells that hold water in summer and a step-well called Yenugula Bavi.
Kawal Tiger Reserve, Jannaram
The Kawal Tiger Reserve covers forests in Jannaram mandal. According to the district brochure, it was set up as a sanctuary in 1965 and notified as a tiger reserve in April 2012. It is mainly dry deciduous teak forest mixed with bamboo. Animals recorded here include tiger, leopard, gaur, sambar, chital, nilgai and sloth bear. Visitors base themselves in the Jannaram tourism zone.
Crocodile sanctuary near Chennur (Shivaram Wildlife Sanctuary)
The district history page mentions a crocodile sanctuary near Chennur. The brochure names it as the Shivaram Wildlife Sanctuary, set up in 1987 mainly to protect the mugger, or marsh crocodile, along the Godavari. The brochure also lists the river stretch here as a place for bird-watching.
Pranahita Wildlife Sanctuary, Chennur
The Pranahita Wildlife Sanctuary, also called the Pranahita Blackbuck Sanctuary, is in Chennur and covers 136 sq km, according to the district brochure. Its open grasslands support blackbuck, the Indian antelope. That makes it a different kind of landscape from the teak forests of Kawal.
The Godavari riverbanks
The Godavari forms the district’s southern boundary. During Karthika Masam, many pilgrims bathe in the river and perform the Satyanarayana Vratam, most of all at Gudem Gutta but also along the Chennur stretch. The Godavari Pushkaralu, held once every twelve years, also brings pilgrims to the riverbanks beside the Gudem temple.
Getting there
- By train: Mancherial and Bellampalli are the district’s railway stations. Mancherial is an A-category station in the Secunderabad division.
- By road: State Highway 1, NH 63 and the Nagpur highway run through the district. There is an RTC bus depot at Mancherial.
- By air: the nearest airport is Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad.
- Gudem Gutta and Gandhari Khilla: the district website names Mancherial as the nearest railway station for both.
Plan your visit
- Karthika Masam (October-November) is the main pilgrim season at Gudem Gutta. According to the brochure, Karthika Pournami is the temple’s busiest day of the year.
- The Mahankali Jatara at Gandhari Khilla is held every year and, according to the district website, draws more than 10,000 people. The Gandhari Maisamma jatara takes place at the fort once every two years, with tribal communities from Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh joining in.
- The brochure suggests October to February as the most comfortable time for forts, temples and wildlife, and October to June for the Pranahita sanctuary. July to September is the monsoon, when forest roads can be harder to use.
- The brochure says forest cottages at Jannaram can be booked through Telangana Tourism. Check availability before you plan a wildlife trip.
Source: official Mancherial district website (places of interest, history, how-to-reach pages and the district tourism brochure).
