INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
MANAGEMENT & APPLIED SCIENCE (IJLTEMAS)  
ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2025  
Environmental Impact Assessment of Peruru Banda Hill Before and  
after the Construction of The Vakulamatha Temple at Tirupati,  
Andhra Pradesh, India  
Mrs. Chiranjeevi Althi1, Dr. T. Ramashri, Professor2, Dr. R. Jagadiswara Rao3, Tirupati, AP4  
1Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engineering (ECE), SVU College of Engineering, Tirupati, AP  
4Dr. R. Balaram Dept. of Geology, SVU College of Science, Tirupati, AP  
2Dept. of Electronics & Communication Engineering (ECE), SVU College of Engineering, Tirupati, AP  
3Retired Professor of Geology, SVU College of Science & Chairman, Rayalaseema Vikas Parishad  
(RVP),  
*Corresponding Author  
DOI : https://doi.org/10.51583/IJLTEMAS.2025.1411000069  
Received: 19 November 2025; Accepted: 27 November 2025; Published: 10 December 2025  
ABSTRACT  
This paper deals with an environmental impact assessment of the Peruru Banda Hill comprising of granite,  
located at around 8 km west of Tiruchanur, Tirupati District, Andhra Pradesh, India before and after the  
construction of the Vakulamatha Temple by the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) in June 2022. Studies  
using multi-date Google Earth Pro (GEP) satellite images generated from the software available in the public  
domain revealed a remarkable improvement in the environmental condition of the temple portion of the Hill,  
while the remaining portion of the hill is either highly water-logged or marked with rugged hilly region at varying  
elevations owing to illegal mining by local artisans. This paper provides a methodology helpful to the TTD  
Engineering Department to transform the entire rocky and water-logged areas of the hill into a high-value prime  
land through appropriate mining of Peruru granite and conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater in the  
nearby Peruru Tank.  
Keywords: Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), Peruru Banda Hill, Vakulamatha Temple, Environmental  
Impact Assessment, Illegal Mining of Granite, Transformation of water-logged and Rocky Portions into Prime  
Land through legal mining..  
INTRODUCTION  
Peruru Banda is a residual hill comprised granite trending in an east-west direction measuring 860 m along length  
and 266 m along breadth in a 23-ha land west of Pathakalva village at around 8 km west of Tiruchanur, Tirupati  
District, Andhra Pradesh, India. It lies between north latitudes 13°35’52.44” and 13°36’02.79” and east  
longitudes 79°21’45.66” and 79°22’14.15” as per the globally followed World Geodetic System WGS 84 Datum  
revised last in 2004. As per the Survey of India topographic map 57 O/6, the hill has a maximum height of 204  
m with reference to sea level and 34 m with reference to ground level.  
Vakulamatha temple was constructed by a Vijayanagara ruler on the eastern fringe of the Peruru Banda Hill in  
the 16th century. For want of maintenance, the temple went into ruins ever since its construction. With the  
renovation of the temple by the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) in June 2022, the temple is being visited  
daily by a large number of pilgrims (Fig. 1).  
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
MANAGEMENT & APPLIED SCIENCE (IJLTEMAS)  
ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2025  
Fig. 1: Aview of the Vakulamatha temple constructed by the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) on the  
eastern fringe of the Peruru Bund Granite Hill in June 2022  
Because of good construction and maintenance by the Engineering Division of the TTD, there has been a  
remarkable improvement in the environmental condition of the temple portion of the Hill. In contrast to this, the  
remaining portion of the hill remains mostly water-logged with rugged hilly terrain subjected to illegal mining  
by the local artisans.  
This paper is aimed at providing a methodology which the TTD Engineering Department could adopt to  
transform the entire water-logged and rocky areas of the hill into a highly-valued prime land with sizeable income  
coming through sale of granite obtained through legal mining.  
Quarrying Of Peruru Granite  
Quarrying of Peruru granite has been carried out since around 10th century with local artisans developing  
ingenious methods of mining that produce little sound and little air pollution. The first one involves burning  
firewood at surface (Fig. 2) and the second one uses a mini-explosive placed in a single narrow hole to a small  
depth (Fig. 3). By this, various dimension stones used in civil engineering works, road metal, fence posts,  
household utilities and kitchen tools could be produced (Figs. 4 and 5). The works of Mahalingam (1970) and  
Craddock (1996) highlight the exceptional skills exhibited by Peruru artisans.  
Fig. 2: Firesetting on granite of Peruru Banda  
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
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ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2025  
Fig. 3: Driving a hole into the rock with hammer for mini-blasting.  
Fig. 4: Making road metal using a hammer  
Fig. 5: Obtaining dimension stones of various sizes  
Constructions Using Peruru Granite  
Some of the important constructions, which used Peruru granite include Chandragiri Fort (Fig. 6), Rayalacheruvu  
Tank (Fig. 7), compound walls of temples (Fig. 8), railway bridges (Fig. 9), College buildings (Fig. 10) and  
Rock-wall Protection walls along the Tirupati-Tirumala Second ghat road (Fig. 11).  
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
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Fig. 6: Chandragiri Fort was constructed using Peruru granite in the 10th century.  
Fig. 7: Rayalacheruvu Tank was constructed using Peruru granite in the 14th century  
Fig. 8: The compound wall of Govindarajaswamy temple at Tirupati was constructed using Peruru granite  
Fig. 9: A railway bridge near Tirupati was constructed using Peruru granite  
Fig. 10: The College of Arts of Sri Venkateswara University at Tirupati was constructed using Peruru granite  
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
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ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2025  
Fig. 11: A rock-wall protection wall was constructed along the Tirupati-Tirumala second ghat road using Peruru  
granite  
Environmental Changes in The Peruru Banda After The Construction of The Vakulamatha Temple  
In order to understand the environmental impact of the Vakulamatha temple on the western portion of the Peruru  
Band Hill, two high-resolution Google Earth satellite imageries have been generated using the Google Earth Pro  
software made available in the public domain on free basis. Of these, Figure 12 refers to the imagery dated 30th  
April 2022 corresponding to the date of construction of the temple, while Figure 13 refers to the imagery dated  
17th April 2025 corresponding to the environmental conditions as on now.  
Fig. 12: A Google Earth Pro (GEP) image of Peruru Banda Hill captured as on 30th April 2022  
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
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ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2025  
Fig. 13: A Google Earth Pro (GEP) image of Peruru Banda Hill captured as on 17th April 2025.  
From the observation that there is near doubling of water-logged area in the western portion of the Peruru Banda,  
it can be concluded there has been a change of environment from bad to worse. This change has been attributed  
to the entry of floodwaters from the Peruru Tank abutting the Peruru Banda Hill in the north entering into the  
low-lying areas.  
How oo Transform The Water-Logged Area of The Peruru Banda Into Dry Land?  
Fig. 15 is the Google Earth Pro image showing both Peruru Banda Hill and Peruru Tank abutting it in the north.  
It is evident from this Figure that all the low-lying areas of the Peruru Band Hill are fed by the surface water in  
the Peruru Tank.  
Fig 4: A Google Earth Pro (GEP) image of Peruru Banda Hill and Peruru Tank captured as on 17th April 2025.  
The works of Jagadiswara Rao et al (1978), Srinivasulu (2006) and Venkateswarlu (2021) in the Upper  
Swarnamukhi river basin indicate that the Peruru Tank is so heavily silted that any small rain fills the Tank to  
the brim with excess water submerging the low-lying areas in the Peruru Banda Hill and other low-lying areas  
in Tirupati. The only way this problem could be tackled effectively is through dredging of sediments accumulated  
in the Peruru Tank and use the dredged material to fill up the low-lying areas of the Peruru Banda Hill into a  
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,  
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ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2025  
level land of high economic value. Large-scale pumping of abundant deep groundwater of high quality associated  
with the Peruru Tank could be used to meet the growing water requirements of the Peruru Banda Hill.  
CONCLUSION  
This Paper provides a methodology helpful to the TTD Engineering Department to transform the entire rocky  
and water-logged areas of the hill into a high-value prime land through appropriate mining of Peruru granite and  
conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater in the nearby Peruru Tank.  
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT  
The authors thank Prof. V. Uma, Vice-chancellor, Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati for  
encouragement.  
REFERENCES  
1. Craddock, P.T. (1996) The use of firesetting in the granite quarries of south India: Mining History: The  
Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, v. 13, no. 1, 5 p.  
2. Jagadiswara Rao, R., Krishna Reddy, T.V., Obul Reddy, C., Sankaranarayana, I., Adi Reddy, P.,  
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Reddy, S., Chandrasekhara Reddy, T., Ramachandrudu, U., Narahari Rao, K.L. and Ashok Reddy, K.,  
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Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh: Technical Report prepared for the District Development Authority,  
Chittoor, v. 1, 130 p, v. 2, 1478 p. & 137 maps.  
3. Mahalingam, T.V. (1970) Studies in the South Indian temple complex: Kannada Research Institute,  
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4. Srinivasulu, J. (2006) Geomorphic evolution and its reflection on the groundwater evaluation of the  
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