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Drainage
Drainage-The term drainage describes the river system of an area
Drainage Basin- Small streams flowing from different directions come together to form the
main river, which ultimately drains into a large water body such as a lake or a sea or an
ocean. The area drained by a single river system is called a drainage basin.
Water Divide-Any elevated area, such as a mountain or an upland, separates two drainage
basins. Such an upland is known as a water divide
DRAINAGE SYSTEMS IN INDIA
The drainage systems of India are mainly controlled by the broad relief features of the
subcontinent.
Indian rivers are divided into two major groups:
[Link] Himalayan rivers
[Link] Peninsular rivers.
Himalayan rivers:
1. Most of the Himalayan rivers are perennial. It means that they have water
throughout the year.
2. These rivers receive water from rain as well as from melted snow from the lofty
mountains
3. Eg. the Indus and the Brahmaputra
4. They cut through the mountains making gorges
5. They have long courses till the sea
6. They perform intensive erosional activity in their upper courses
7. The carry silt and sand
8. In the middle and the lower courses, these rivers form meanders and oxbow
lakes
9. They also have welldeveloped deltas
Peninsular Rivers:
1. A large number of the Peninsular rivers are seasonal as their flow is dependent
on rainfall
2. During the dry season, even the large rivers have reduced flow of water in their
channels.
3. The Peninsular rivers have shorter and shallower courses
4. Some of them originate in the central highlands and flow towards the west(like
Narmada and tapi)
5. Most of the rivers of peninsular India originate in the Western Ghats and flow
towards the Bay of Bengal.
THE HIMALAYAN RIVERS
The major Himalayan rivers are the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra
These rivers are long, and are joined by many large and important tributaries
A river alongwith its tributaries may be called a river system.
The Indus River System:
1. The river Indus rises in Tibet, near Lake Mansarowar.
2. It flows towards west
3. it enters India in Ladakh
4. It forms a picturesque gorge in this part
5. Several tributaries, the Zaskar, the Nubra, the Shyok and the Hunza, join it in the
Kashmir region
6. The Indus flows through Baltistan and Gilgit and emerges from the mountains at
Attock.
7. The Satluj, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab and the Jhelum join together to enter
the Indus near Mithankot in Pakistan.
8. Beyond this, the Indus flows southwards eventually reaching the Arabian Sea,
east of Karachi.
9. The Indus plain has a very gentle slope.
10. With a total length of 2900 km, the Indus is one of the longest rivers of the
world
11. A little over a third of the Indus basin is located in India Ladakh, Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and the rest is in Pakistan
The Ganga River System:
1. The headwaters of the Ganga, called the ‘Bhagirathi’ is fed by the Gangotri Glacier
and joined by the Alaknanda at Devaprayag in Uttarakhand.
2. At Haridwar, the Ganga emerges from the mountains on to the plains.
3. Tributaries of Ganga are the Yamuna, the Ghaghara, the Gandak and the Kosi
4. The river Yamuna rises from the Yamunotri Glacier in the Himalayas. It flows parallel
to the Ganga and as a right bank tributary meets the Ganga at Allahabad.
5.