With a land area of consisting of diverse ecosystems, India has many river systems and perennial streams. 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.
Most rivers in India originate from four major watersheds in India. The Himalayan watershed is the source of water for the major river systems in India including the three longest rivers – the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Indus. These three river systems are fed by more than 5000 glaciers. 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.
The Narmada and Tapti rivers originate from the Vindhya and Satpura ranges in Central India. 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. The largest of the peninsular rivers include the Godavari, the Krishna, the Mahanadi and the Kaveri.
River systems
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.
River unit Region Draining into Catchment area (% of land area) Average annual runoff (km3) Surface water (km3) Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna North-east Bangladesh 34.0 610.62 294.0 Other North-east rivers Bangladesh, Myanmar 1.1 31.0 Subarnarekha Bay of Bengal 0.9 12.4 Brahmani-Baitarani 1.6 28.5 6.8 Mahanadi Central-east 4.4 66.9 18.3 East flowing rivers between Mahanadi and Pennar 2.7 22.5 19.0 Godavari Central 9.7 110.5 50 Krishna 8.0 78.1 76.3 Pennar South-east 1.7 6.3 58.0 East flowing rivers between Pennar and Kanyakumari 3.1 16.5 13.1 Kaveri South 2.5 21.4 6.9 West flowing rivers between Tadri and Kanyakumari South-west Arabian Sea 1.7 113.5 16.7 West flowing rivers between Tapti and Tadri Southwest 1.7 87.4 24.3 Tapti Central-west 2.0 14.9 11.9 Narmada 3.1 45.6 14.5 Mahi North-west 1.1 11.0 34.5 Sabarmati 0.7 3.8 3.1 West flowing rivers between Kutch and Saurashtra 10.0 15.1 1.9 Rajasthan inland basin North-east None Negligible Negligible 15.0 Indus tributaries North-west Pakistan 10 73.3 46.0
List of rivers
+Major rivers of India Rank River Image Length (km) Origin Outflow Major tributaries States/UT 1 Indus 3,180 Himalayas Arabian Sea Panjnad, Shyok, Dras, Zanskar Ladakh, Gujarat 2 Brahmaputra 2,880 Bay of Bengal Lhasa, Lohit, Subansiri, Teesta Arunachal Pradesh, Assam 3 Ganges 2,525 Yamuna, Ghaghara, Gomti, Gandaki, Kosi, Son Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal 4 Godavari 1,465 Western Ghats Manjira, Indravati, Sabari, Purna Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh 5 Satluj 1,450 Himalayas Indus Chenab, Beas Himachal Pradesh, Punjab 6 Krishna 1,400 Western Ghats Bay of Bengal Bhima, Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh 7 Yamuna 1,376 Himalayas Ganges Chambal, Betwa, Ken Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi 8 Narmada 1,312 Vindhya and Satpura Arabian Sea Kolar, Sher, Tawa Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat 9 Ghagara 1,080 Himalayas Ganges Seti, Bheri Uttar Pradesh, Bihar 10 Chambal 1,024 Vindhya and Satpura Banas, Parbati, Shipra Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh 11 Mahanadi 900 Eastern Ghats Bay of Bengal Hasdeo, Seonath, Jonk, Ong River, Prachi Chhattisgarh, Odisha 12 Chenab 890 Himalayas Sutlej Ravi, Jhelum, Tawi Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir 13 Kaveri 805 Western Ghats Bay of Bengal Amaravati, Hemavati, Bhavani, Noyyal Karnataka, Tamil Nadu 14 Son 784 Vindhya and Satpura Ganges Gopad, Rihand, Kanhar Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar 15 Jhelum 729 Himalayas Chenab Poonch, Lidder, Neelum Jammu and Kashmir 16 Ravi 720 Himachal Pradesh, Punjab 17 Kosi 720 Ganges Sun Kosi, Arun, Tamur Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar
See also Indian Rivers Inter-link
Notes
References