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There are more than 400 rivers in India. As per the classification of Food and Agriculture Organization, the Indian rivers are combined into 20 river units, which includes 14 major rivers systems and 99 smaller river basins grouped into six river units. The rivers of India can be classified into four groups – Himalayan, Deccan, Coastal, and Inland drainage.

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 major 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 as the origin of few of the 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 major peninsular rivers include the Godavari, the Krishna, the Mahanadi and the Kaveri.

See also

• Dissolved load
• Indian Rivers Inter-link
• Interstate River Water Disputes Act
• Irrigation in India
• List of dams and reservoirs in India
• List of drainage basins by area
• List of major rivers of India
• List of rivers by discharge
• National Water Policy
• Water scarcity in India
• Water supply and sanitation in India
• Water pollution in India

Notes

1. ^ For rivers discharging into the sea, the discharge is based on calculations at stations located close to their mouths. For others, discharge is calculated at the confluence with the parent river.
2. ^ 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.
3. The Indus River Delta is mostly in the Sindh province of Pakistan and the discharge is as measured close to its mouth.
4. ^ The Chenab joins with the Sutlej near Marala in Pakistan to form the Panjnad River, which later merges with the Indus.
5. The Jhelum joins the Chenab river near Mangla in Pakistan.

References

1. Banerjee, Ananda (25 May 2015). "India's misunderstood rivers". Live Mint. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
2. India – Rivers Catchment (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization (Report). 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 April 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
3. ^ "Rivers of India". Know India. Government of India. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
4. ^ "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.
7. S. Krishnaswami; Sunil Kumar Singh (September 2005). "Chemical weathering in the river basins of the Himalaya, India". Current Science. 89 (5). Current Science Association: 2.

• Lists of rivers of India