Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city is located on National Highway. It was also the headquarters of the Datta Mandalam (Rayalaseema districts of Andhra Pradesh and Bellary district of Karnataka) in 1799. It was also a position of strategic importance for the British Indian Army during the Second World War. Geography Anantapur is located at . It has an average elevation of . It is located at a distance of 484 km from Vijayawada, 148 km from Kurnool and 210 km from Bengaluru which is the closest international airport. Climate Anantapur has a semi-arid climate, with hot and dry conditions for most of the year. Summer start in late February and peak in May with average high temperatures around the range. Anantapur gets pre-monsoon showers starting as early as March, mainly through north-easterly winds blowing in from Kerala. Monsoon arrives in September and lasts until early November with about of precipitation. A dry and mild winter starts in late November and lasts until early February; with little humidity and average temperatures in the range. Total annual rainfall is about . Demographics census, Anantapur city has a population of 340,613. The sex ratio was 995 females per 1000 males and 9% of the population was under 6 years old. Effective literacy is 82%, male literacy is 89% and female literacy is 75%. Telugu is the official and widely spoken language, in addition to it Urdu, Hindi, Kannada and Tamil languages are also spoken by significant minorities in the city. Governance Civic administration Anantapuru Municipal Corporation is the civic body of Anantapuru. Public utilities Anantapuru Drinking Water Supply Project and Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust have also step forward in supplying clean water and concentrated mainly on eradicating fluorosis. The corporation supplies chlorinated water to the city from the summer storage tank located in the town. Transport Anantapur is well connected to the nearby major cities with National Highway 44 and National Highway 205 of National Highway network of India. The NH–44 connects it to Bangalore, which is towards south and Hyderabad, towards north, and NH 205 connects it to Chennai via Renigunta. The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation operates bus services from Anantapur bus station. The city has a total road