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Map of the major rivers, lakes, and reservoirs in India

Map showing rivers and flood prone areas in India.

 Map of India based on survey of rivers of India.

The rivers of India play an important role in the lives of the people. They provide potable water,
cheap transportation, electricity, and the livelihood for many people nationwide. This easily explains
why nearly all the major cities of India are located by the banks of rivers. The rivers also have an
important role in Hindu Religion and are considered holy by all Hindus in the country.[1]
Seven major rivers along with their numerous tributaries make up the river system of India. The
largest basin system of the rivers pour their waters into the Bay of Bengal; however, some of the
rivers whose courses take them through the western part of the country and towards the east of the
state of Himachal Pradesh empty into the Arabian Sea. Parts of Ladakh, northern parts of
the Aravalli range and the arid parts of the Thar Desert have inland drainage.
All major rivers of India originate from one of the following main watersheds:

1. Aravalli range
2. Himalaya and Karakoram ranges
3. Sahyadri or Western Ghats in western India
4. Vindhya and Satpura ranges and Chotanagpur plateau in central India
Himalayan glaciers in the Indian subcontinent are broadly divided into the three river basins, namely
the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra. The Indus basin has the largest number of glaciers (3500),
whereas the Ganga and Brahmaputra basins contain about 1000 and 660 glaciers,
respectively.[2] Ganga is the largest river system in India.However these rivers are just three among
many. Other examples are Narmada, Tapi, and Godavari.

Contents

 1The Indo-Gangetic plains

 2Aravalli range river system
 3Ganges river system
 4Brahmaputra river system
 5Indus river system
 6Annual flows and other data
 7The peninsular river system
 8See also
 9References

The Indo-Gangetic plains[edit]

The Indo gangetic plains are known as Ganga-Satluj Ka Maidaan (गँ गा सतलुज का मैदान), this area
is drained by 16 major rivers. The major Himalayan Rivers are the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra.
These rivers are long, and are joined by many large and important tributaries. Himalayan rivers have
long courses from their source to sea (in India Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal).

Laxman Jhoola in Rishikesh

Aravalli range river system[edit]

Following rivers flow from the Aravalli range, both northwards to Yamuna as well as southwards to
Arabian Sea.

 North-to-south flowing rivers, originate from the western slopes of Aravalli range in Rajasthan,
pass through the southeastern portion of the Thar Desert, and end into Gujarat.
o Luni River, originates in the Pushkar valley near Ajmer, ends in the marshy lands of Rann of
Kutch.
o Sakhi river, ends in the marshy lands of Rann of Kutch.
o Sabarmati River, originates on the western slopes of Aravalli range of the Udaipur District,
end into the Gulf of Cambay of Arabian Sea.
 West to north-west flowing rivers, originate from the western slopes of Aravalli range in
Rajasthan, flow through semi-arid historical Shekhawati region, drain into southern Haryana.
Several Ochre Coloured Pottery culture sites, also identified as late Harappan phase of Indus
Valley Civilisation culture,[3] has been found along the banks of these rivers.
o Sahibi River, originates near Manoharpur in Sikar district flows through Haryana, along with
its following tributaries:[4][5][6][7]
 Dohan river, tributary of Sahibi river, originates near Neem Ka Thana in Alwar district).
 Sota River, tributary of Sahibi river, merges with Sahibi river at Behror in Alwar district.
 Krishnavati river, former tributary of Sahibi river, originates near Dariba copper mines
in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan, flows through Patan in Dausa district and Mothooka
in Alwar district, then disappears in Mahendragarh district in Haryana much before
reaching Sahibi river.
 West to north-east flowing rivers, originating from the eastern slopes of Aravalli range in
Rajasthan, flow northwards to Yamuna.
o Chambal River, a southern-side tributary of Yamuna river.
 Banas River, a northern-side tributary of Chambal river.
  Berach River, a southern-side tributary of Banas River, originates in the hills
of Udaipur District.
 Ahar River, a right-side (or eastern side) tributary of the Berach river, originates
in the hills of Udaipur District, flows through Udaipur city forming the
famous Lake Pichola.
 Wagli Wagon River, a right-side tributary of the Berach River.
 Gambhiri River, a right-side tributary of the Berach river.
 Orai River, a right-side tributary of the Berach River.

Ganges river system[edit]

The major rivers in this system are (in order of merging, from west to east)

 Ganga - Starting from Gangotri Glacier, Uttarakhand

 Chambal -Flows through Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and merges into Yamuna in Uttar
Pradesh
 Betwa - Not Himalayan river, covers Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh before merging
Yamuna
 Yamuna - Yamuna runs its most of the course parallel to Ganga before contributing its water to
Ganga at prayagraj
 Gomti - Starts near the junction of three borders viz. Nepal, Uttarakhand and UP
 Ghaghra - Starts in Nepal near Uttarakhand
 Son - Not Himalayan river, covers MP, UP, Jharkhand and Bihar. Largest of Ganga's southern
tributaries
 Gandak - Starts from Nepal
 Kosi - Starts from Bihar, near Indo-Nepal border
 Brahmaputra - Merges with Ganga to form the grand river (but short in length) - Padma in
Bangladesh. By now, flow velocity of both rivers slow down to considerable extent as they are in
plains now.
Before entering Bangladesh, Ganga leaves a distributary Hoogly, which provides water for irrigation
in West Bengal

Brahmaputra river system[edit]

Brahmaputra River basin across Northeast India

Main articles: Brahmaputra River and List of rivers by length

 Yarlung Tsangpo River - originates and forms the upper stream of Brahmaputra in Tibet
 Siang - main river after it enters India in the state of Arunachal Pradesh
 Dibang - major tributary flowing through Arunachal Pradesh before merging into the
Brahmaputra River in Assam.
 Lohit - one of the three major tributaries of Brahmaputra flowing through Arunachal Pradesh
from the easternmost India.
 Brahmaputra - runs across the state of Assam from East to West,
entering Bangladesh afterwards.
 Teesta - one of the largest tributaries of Brahmaputra; originating in the borders
of Sikkim and Tibet, flowing South it joins Brahmaputra in Bangladesh.
 Jamuna River (Bangladesh) - the Brahmaputra is known as Jamuna in Bangladesh.
 Padma River - the Jamuna river merges with Padma in Bangladesh before finally falling into
the Bay of Bengal.

Indus river system[edit]

The Indus River originates in the northern slopes of the Kailash range near Lake
Manasarovar in Tibet. Although most of the river's course runs through neighbouring Pakistan, as
per as regulation of Indus water treaty of 1960, India can use only 20 percent of the water in this
river. A portion of it does run through Indian territory, as do parts of the courses of its five major
tributaries, listed below. These tributaries are the source of the name of the Punjab of South Asia;
the name is derived from the panch ("five") and aab ("water"), hence the combination of the words
(Punjab) means "land with the water of five rivers". The Indus is 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) long.
The major rivers in Indus river system are (in order of their length):

 Indus - 3,202 kilometres (1,990 mi)

 Sutlej - 1,529 kilometres (950 mi)
 Chenab - 960 kilometres (600 mi)
 Jhelum - 813 kilometres (505 mi)
 Ravi - 720 kilometres (450 mi)

 Beas - 460 kilometres (290 mi)

 Shyok
 Zanskar

Annual flows and other data[edit]

India experiences an average precipitation of 1,170 millimetres (46 in) per year, or about 4,000 cubic
kilometres (960 cu mi) of rains annually.[8] Some 80 percent of its area experiences rains of 50
inches (1,300 mm) or more a year. However, this rain is not uniform in time or geography. Most of
the rains occur during its monsoon seasons (June to September), with the northeast and north
receiving far more rains than India's west and south. Other than rains, the melting of snow year
round over the Himalayas feeds the northern rivers to varying degrees. The southern rivers, however
experience more flow variability over the year. For the Himalayan basin, this leads to flooding in
some months and water scarcity in others. Despite extensive river system, safe clean drinking water
as well as irrigation water supplies for sustainable agriculture are in shortage across India, in part
because it has, as yet, harnessed a small fraction of its available and recoverable surface water
resource.[9] India harnessed 761 cubic kilometres (183 cu mi) (20 percent) of its water resources in
2010, part of which came from unsustainable use of groundwater. Of the water it withdrew from its
rivers and groundwater wells, India dedicated about 688 cubic kilometres (165 cu mi) to irrigation, 56
cubic kilometres (13 cu mi) to municipal and drinking water applications and 17 cubic kilometres
(4.1 cu mi) to industry.[8]
According to 2011 report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, India's
basin wise distribution of catchment area and utilizable surface water resources is presented in the
following table:[8]

Catchment Additional
area Average available
hideBasin River basin
Region Draining into (% of river runoff surface
number unit
irrigated (km3) water
India) (km3)

1.1 Ganges (GBM) North Bangladesh 26.5 525.02 250

Brahmaputra
1.2 Northeast Bangladesh 6 537.24 24
(GBM)

Meghna/Barak
1.3 East Bangladesh 1.5 48.36
(GBM)

Other
Myanmar,
2 Northeast Northeast 1.1 31
Bangladesh
rivers

East-
3 Subernarekha Bay of Bengal 0.9 12.37
southeast

Brahmani- East-
4 Bay of Bengal 1.6 28.48 6.8
Baitarani southeast

Central-
5 Mahanadi Bay of Bengal 4.4 66.88 18.3
east

6 Godavari Central Bay of Bengal 9.7 110.54 50

 Catchment Additional
area Average available
hideBasin River basin
Region Draining into (% of river runoff surface
number unit
irrigated (km3) water
India) (km3)

7 Krishna Central Bay of Bengal 8 78.12 76.3

9 Pennar Southeast Bay of Bengal 1.7 6.32 58

10 Kaveri South Bay of Bengal 2.5 21.36 6.9

East flowing
rivers between Central-
11 Bay of Bengal 2.7 22.52 19
Mahanadi and east
Pennar

East flowing
rivers between
12 Southeast Bay of Bengal 3.1 16.46 13.1
Kanyakumari
and Pennar

West flowing
rivers between
13 Southwest Arabian Sea 1.7 113.53 16.7
Tadri and
Kanyakumari

West flowing
14 rivers between Southwest Arabian Sea 1.7 87.41 24.3
Tapi and Tadri

Central-
15 Tapi Arabian Sea 2 14.88 11.9
west
 Catchment Additional
area Average available
hideBasin River basin
Region Draining into (% of river runoff surface
number unit
irrigated (km3) water
India) (km3)

Central-
16 Narmada Arabian Sea 3.1 45.64 14.5
west

17 Mahi Northwest Arabian Sea 1.1 11.02 34.5

18 Sabarmati Northwest Arabian Sea 0.7 3.81 3.1

West flowing
rivers between
19 Northwest Arabian Sea 10 15.1 1.9
Kutch and
Saurashtra

Rajasthan
20 Northwest India 0 Negligible 15
inland basin

Indus
21 Northwest Pakistan 10 73.31 46
tributaries

Total
(per
100 1869.37
International
Treaty)

The peninsular river system[edit]

The main water divide in peninsular rivers is formed by the Western Ghats, which run from north to
south close to the western coast. Most of the major rivers of the peninsula such as the Mahanadi,
the Godavari, the Krishna and the Kaveri flow eastwards and drain into the Bay of Bengal. These
rivers make delta at their mouths. The Narmada, Periyar and Tapti are the only long rivers, which
flow west and make estuaries.
This chart shows the tributaries and distributaries of major rivers of India. The merging of cells to the right side
each time indicates getting supply from a tributary and vice versa. The bottom-most row shows other rivers with
no major helping rivers (Saryu is an exception). Flow of the rivers is assumed to be from left to right.

See also[edit]
 Indian Rivers Inter-link
 Amazon river basin
 Nile river basin
 Ganga
 Indus
 Nethravati

References[edit]
1. ^ Sunil Vaidyanathan, Rivers of India veronica, ISBN 8368135142 Parameter error in {{ISBN}}:
Invalid ISBN., 2012
2. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-05-14. Retrieved 2015-09-03. page
no 361
3. ^ Gupta, S.P. (ed.) (1995), The lost Sarasvati and the Indus Civilization, Jodhpur: Kusumanjali
Prakashan
4. ^ Cultural Contours of India: Dr. Satya Prakash Felicitation Volume, Vijai Shankar Śrivastava,
1981. ISBN 0391023586
5. ^ Sahibi river
6. ^ Books: Page 41, 42, 43, 44, 47 (b) Sahibi Nadi (River), River Pollution, By A.k.jain
7. ^ Minerals and Metals in Ancient India: Archaeological evidence, Arun Kumar Biswas, Sulekha
Biswas, University of Michigan. 1996. ISBN 812460049X.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c FAO, India - Rivers Catchment, Aquastat, United Nations (2011)
9. ^ K.L. Rao, India's Water Wealth, ISBN 978-8125007043, 1979