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List of rivers of India

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Map of India showing the major rivers.

With a land area of 3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) consisting of diverse ecosystems, India has many rivers systems and perennial streams.[1] The rivers of India can be classified into four groups – Himalayan, Deccan, Coastal, and Inland drainage. The Himalayan rivers, mainly fed by glaciers and snow melt, arise from the Himalayas. The Deccan rivers system consists of rivers in Peninsular India, that drain into the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. There are numerous short coastal rivers, predominantly on the West coast. There are few inland rivers, which do not drain into sea.[2][3]

Most of the rivers in India originate from the four major watersheds in India. The Himalayan watershed is the source of majority of the major river systems in India including the three longest rivers–the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Indus.[3][4] These three river systems are fed by more than 5000 glaciers.[5] The Aravalli range in the north-west serves the origin of few of the rivers such as the Chambal, the Banas and the Luni rivers.[4]

The Narmada and Tapti rivers originate from the Vindhya and Satpura ranges in Central India.[4] In the peninsular India, majority of the rivers originate from the Western Ghats and flow towards the Bay of Bengal, while only a few rivers flow from east to west from the Eastern Ghats to the Arabian sea. This is because of the difference in elevation of the Deccan plateau, which slopes gently from the west to the east.[6] The largest of the peninsular rivers include the Godavari, the Krishna, the Mahanadi and the Kaveri.[3][4]

River systems

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text chart showing confluence of rivers in India
Chart showing the major river systems of India along with the tributaries and distributaries of some of them.

As per the classification of Food and Agriculture Organization, the rivers systems are combined into 20 river units, which includes 14 major rivers systems and 99 smaller river basins grouped into six river units. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin is the largest, which covers 34% of the land area and contributes to nearly 59% of the available water resources.[2]

River unit Region Draining into Major River(s) Other Rivers Catchment area
(% of land area) 		Average annual runoff
(km3) 		Surface water
(km3)
Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna North-east Bay of Bengal[a] Brahmaputra 34.0 610.62 294.0
Ganges
Meghna
Indus River Basin North-west Arabian Sea[b] Indus 10.0 73.3 46.0
West flowing rivers between Kutch and Saurashtra North-west Arabian Sea 10.0 15.1 1.9
Godavari Central Bay of Bengal Godavari 9.7 110.5 50
Krishna Central Bay of Bengal Krishna 8.0 78.1 76.3
Mahanadi Central-east Bay of Bengal Mahanadi 4.4 66.9 18.3
East flowing rivers between Pennar and Kanyakumari
(excluding Kaveri) 		South-east Bay of Bengal 3.1 16.5 13.1
Narmada Central-west Arabian Sea Narmada 3.1 45.6 14.5
East flowing rivers between Mahanadi and Pennar
(excluding Godavari and Krishna) 		South-east Bay of Bengal 2.7 22.5 19.0
Kaveri South Bay of Bengal Kaveri 2.5 21.4 6.9
Tapti Central-west Arabian Sea Tapti 2.0 14.9 11.9
Pennar South-east Bay of Bengal Pennar 1.7 6.3 58.0
West flowing rivers between Tadri and Kanyakumari South-west Arabian Sea 1.7 113.5 16.7
West flowing rivers between Tapti and Tadri South-west Arabian Sea 1.7 87.4 24.3
Brahmani-Baitarani North-east Bay of Bengal Brahmani
Baitarani 		1.6 28.5 6.8
North-east rivers
excluding Brahmaputra 		North-east Bay of Bengal[c] 1.1 31.0
Mahi North-west Arabian Sea Mahi 1.1 11.0 34.5
Subarnarekha North-east Bay of Bengal Subarnarekha 0.9 12.4
Sabarmati North-west Arabian Sea Sabarmati 0.7 3.8 3.1
Rajasthan inland basin North-east None Luni Negligible Negligible 15.0

Alphabetical list

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A–H

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I–L

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M–R

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S–Z

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The Ganges splits into Hooghly and Padma Rivers after Farakka in West Bengal. The Hooghly flows into the Bay of Bengal near Kolkata. The Brahmaputra splits into two distributaries. In Bangladesh, the western branch merges with the lower Ganges to form the Padma River and the eastern branch joins with the Meghna River. The Padma and Meghna rivers converge to form the eastern part of the Ganges Delta and flow out into the Bay of Bengal.
  2. ^ The Jhelum and Ravi join the Chenab, the Beas River joins the Sutlej. Later the Chenab joins with the Sutlej to form the Panjnad River, which merges with the Indus. The Indus River Delta is mostly in the Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India.
  3. ^ These rivers flow through to Bangladesh, or Myanmar from India.

References

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  1. ^ "India at a glance". Know India. Government of India. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b India – Rivers Catchment (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization (Report). 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 April 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "Rivers of India". Know India. Government of India. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d "Major River basins of India". MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  5. ^ "Comparison and Monitoring of Glacier Retreat using Satellite and Ground Methods" (PDF). International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE). March 2013. p. 361. ISSN 2231-2307. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 May 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  6. ^ "Formation of Western Ghats". Indian Institute of Science. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
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