Rivers Of India

The rivers of India can be classified into four groups viz., the Himalayan rivers, the Deccan rivers, the coastal rivers, and rivers of the inland drainage basin.

The main Himalayan River System includes the Indus and the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system. The Indus originates near Mansarovar in Tibet, flows through India and Pakistan, and finally falls into the Arabian Sea near Karachi. Its important tributaries flowing through Indian territory are Sutlej (originating in Tibet), Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum. The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna river system creates principal subbasins of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, which join at Dev Prayag to form the Ganga. It then traverses through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. Below the Rajmahal hills, Bhagirathi, which used to be the main course in the past, takes off, while Padma continues eastwards and enters Bangladesh.

The Yamuna, Ramganga, Ghaghra, Gandak, Kosi, Mahananda and Sone are the important tributaries of Ganga. Rivers Chambal and Betwa are the important sub-tributaries, which join Yamuna before it merges with Ganga. The Padma and the Brahmaputra join in Bangladesh, and continue to flow as River Padma or Ganga.

The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet, where it is known as Tsangpo and runs a long distance till it crosses over into India in Arunachal Pradesh under the name of Dihang.

Near Passighat, Debang and Lohit join river Brahmaputra and together run all along Assam in a narrow valley. It crosses Bangladesh as a downstream of Dhubri.

In the Deccan region, most of the major river systems flow in the eastern direction and fall into the Bay of Bengal. The major East-flowing rivers are Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery and Mahanadi.

Narmada and Tapti are the major West-flowing rivers.

River Godavari in the Southern peninsula forms the second largest river basin, covering ten per cent of the total area of the country, while the Mahanadi has the third largest basin.

River basin of the Narmada in the uplands of the Deccan, flowing into the Arabian Sea, and of Cauvery in the south, falling into the Bay of Bengal is about the same size, though with different character and shape.

There are numerous coastal rivers, which are comparatively smaller. While only a handful of such rivers drain into the sea along the East Coast, there are as many as 600 such rivers on the West Coast.