Adilabad district is situated between 77.46' and 80.01' ,of the eastern longitudes and 18.40' and 19.56', of northern latitudes.The district is bounded on north by Yeotmal and Chanda district of Maharastra, on the east by Chanda district, on the south by Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts and on the west by Nanded district of Maharastra State.
The district has population of 2079098 which accounts for 3.13% of the total population of the State. It is however takes the fifth rank in area with an extent of 16128 SU kms.Which account for 5.90% of the total area of the State. It is however,the second largest district in the Telangana of the inhabited and 167 unihabited village and 11 Towns.
The District Comprises of 52 Mandals and 1743 villages of which 1557 villages are inhabited and 186 villages are un-inhabitated. There are 7 Muncipalities in the District. The District is conveniently formed into 5 divisions
1)Adilabad , 2) Nirmal ,3)Utnoor, 4)Asifabad,5)Mancherial.
The district derives its name from Adilabad,its headquarters town which was named after the ruler of Bijapur, Ali Adil Shah. The district was for long not a homogenius unit and its component parts were ruled at different periods by nasties namely, the Mauryas,Staavahanas, Vakatakas,Chaludyasof Badami, Rashtrakututs, Chalukyas of Kalyani, Mughals,Bhosle Rajes of Nagpur and Asaf Jahis, besides the Gond Rajas of Sirpur and Chanda.Originally this was not full fledged district but a sub-district named Sirpur-Tandur which was created in A.D. 1872 with Edlabad(Adilabad), Rajura and Sirpur as its consistuents talukas.In 1905 the status of this sub-district was raised to that of an independent district with head quarters at Adilabad.
This district is full of nature. It is famous for green forests, rivers, waterfalls, wild animals, etc. There are beutiful waterfalls in this district namely Kuntala, Pochera and Sadarmaat. There are lot of wild animal sanctuaries in this district.
Due to the heavy amount of transactions involved in cotton business, this city is also called of "City of Cotton".
Other major cities in this district: Mancheral, Kagaz Nagar, Bellampalli, Asifabad, Utnoor, Nirmal, Bhainsa and Basar.
This District has been the place of stay for some of the tribe sects like Gond, Lambada, etc whose mother tongue do not have script. There is a Fort in the town of Utnoor which is 55 kms from Adilabad which was built by Gond kings who ruled this area. Currently utnoor is the operational head querter for the organization ITDA (ITDA-> Integrated Tribal Development Authority) set up by government of AP for the benifit of tribals.
Basara: Basara houses a temple dedicated to the goddess of learning, Saraswathi that is well-known within the state.
Kuntala waterfalls: Kuntala waterfalls, near Kuntala, is the highest waterfall in Andhra Pradesh (45 m).