The Ganga System

THE GANGES

The Ganges Length : Over 2500 kmDrainage : Dendritic patternAmbala : Water divide between

Indus and GangaLength of plains: 1800 kmFall in slope : Hardly 300 metres,

i.e.one metre for every 6 km therefore ,the river develops large meanders

River Indus

River G

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The Ganga River System

The Ganges river is one of the largest and by far the

most important rivers in India.She has been a symbol of

India’s age long culture and civilization, ever changing,

ever flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga.

The river Ganges is officially and popularly known by it’s

hindu name,Ganga. The Ganges is 1560 miles long and flows through China,

India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The river flows through 29 cities and about 48 towns.

RELIGIOUS IMPORTANCE

Hindus, who constitute the vast majority of India's

population, consider the Ganges a sacred river:

Ganga (or Ganges) is the daughter of the mountain

god, Himavan or Himalaya.

Every day people bathe in the sacred water believing that it will wash away their

sins. It is believed that even a few drops on their tongue will clean their bodies. To bathe

in the Ganga is a lifelong ambition for Hindus.

It is believed that any water that mixes with the smallest

amount of Ganges river becomes holy with healing

powers. Hindus also cast the ashes of their dead in the

river in the belief that this will guide the souls of the

deceased to paradise.

The Ganges has been used for irrigation since ancient times, the use of irrigation canals has increased the

production of cash crops like sugarcane, cotton and

oilseeds.

Floods of the Ganges have enriched the soil. This makes the Ganges Valley a great agricultural

region in India.

Floods of the Ganges have enriched the soil. This makes the Ganges Valley a great agricultural region in India. Fishing also is an important use of the Ganges. The Ganges is also a burial ground for the dead.

Drinking- Many cities get their drinking water from the

Ganges, which is a large problem because the water is very polluted in some parts of

the Ganges.

Energy-Only 20% of the estimated capacity of dams has been developed. At the upper part of the Ganges

River, electricity is generated at the waterfalls of the

Ganges River.

Gangotri glacier

GANGOTRI GLACIERS

Gnagotri glacier

Melt waters from Gangotri glacier

Source of river Ganga

The source of the river Bhagirathi. Gaumukh ("The mouth of a cow") is the cave in the glacier, from which the river emerges in full force.

Bhagirathi river in the Himalayas falling down a cliff in Gangotri, Uttaranchal, India.

Bhagirathi river cutting through rocks

The Bhagirathi River

Source of Alaknanda river

Alkapuri, the origin of Alaknanda river...

The five river confluences of Alakananda are Vishnu Prayag, Nandaprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag and Devaprayag… All five along the path of the Alakananda river, that goes on assimilating other rivers… Till it reaches Devaprayag, where Alakandanda meets Bhagirathi and thereon, is known as Ganga.

Vishnu Prayag,

It is the confluence of the Dhauliganga with the Alaknanda. Vishnu Prayag

It is the confluence of the Dhauliganga with the Alaknanda. Vishnu Prayag,

(confluence of Alakananda and Nandakini. (Pindari) river ) Nandaprayag

Nandaprayag

The confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers. karnaprayag

Alaknanda River

RIVER RAFTING >> GANGA-ALAKNANDA

Stones under water. Beautiful patterns of filtered sunlight on the submerged ...

RUDRAPRAYAG Confluence of Mandakini and Alaknanda river

Neelkanth Parvat & Badrinath Temple

BADRINATH - ALAKNANDA RIVER

Alaknanda River, Garhwal,

The confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers.

DEVAPRAYAG

Alakananda river

Bagirathi river

Devaprayag the confluence of the two rivers

The confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers DEVAPRAYAG

River Alakananda & River Bagirathi meet at the river confluence Of Devaprayag and from here it flows as River Ganga.

The headwaters of the Ganga called the ‘Bhagirathi’ is fed by the Gangotri Glacier and joined by the Alaknanda

at Devaprayag in Uttaranchal. At Haridwar the

Ganga emerges from the mountains on to the plains.

Ganga at Haridwar

Flowing through the valley to flow through the plains at Rishikesh

Alluvial fa

ns

Gnaga leaves the mountains and joins its tributaries at Haridwar

Gnaga leaves the mountains and joins its tributaries at Haridwar

The Ganga is joined by many tributaries from the

Himalayas, a few of them being major rivers

such as the Yamuna, the Ghaghara, the Ghandak and the Kosi. The river Yamuna

rises from the Yamunotri Glacier in the Himalayas.

Ganga Yamuna Sangam

Ganga Yamuna Sangam

Ganga Yamuna Sangam at Allahabad

YAMUNOTRI GLACIER

MAMALLAPURAM

A scene carved into rocks near Mamallapuram, India, depicts the descent of the

sacred river Ganges from the Himalayas. Following a

natural crack in the rock, the carving is 6 m (20 ft) high.

It depicts gods, celestial beings, and animals gathered

along the river’s (Ganges) path. The carvings date from

the 7th century AD. The monuments of

Mamallapuram are excellent specimen of Dravidian temple architecture and Pallava art.

THE GANGES AT ROMETHE GANGES AT ROME

The picture shows River Ganges as visualised by

Bernini. It symbolises four of the world’s great rivers (the

Ganges, the Nile, the Danube and the Plata), representing the four continents known at

the time.

River yamuna at yamunotri

RIVER YAMUNA

VARANASI

Varanasi is probably one of the most ancient living cities in India. Varanasi is closely

associated with Ganges. The temple town has many

temples along the banks of the Ganges.

Varanasi is situated on the crescent shaped left bank of the holy Ganga, it is one of

the ancient seats of learning in India, it is said to be

respectively a compound of the names of two streams, the Varuna and the Assi,

which still flow.

Till May 24, 1956, Varanasi was known by the name

Banarus. From time immemorial Varanasi, has

been a great religious center for Hindus and one of their

most sacred places of pilgrimage, visited by millions

each year.

Himalayan tributaries of River Ganga

Yamuna river

Ghaghara river

Gandak river / kali river

Kosi river

Tributaries from the Peninsular Uplands

River Chambal a Tributary of Yamuna

River Chambal

River Betwa a Tributary of Yamuna

River Betwa

River son

River son a tributary of Ganga

Farakka Dam

Bhagirathi – Hoogly a distributary of Ganga

Bhagirathi – Hoogly a distributary of Ganga

After Ganga- Brahmaputra (Padma)has merged the combined river is known as Meghna River

After Ganga- Brahmaputra has merged the combined river is known as Meghna River

Meghna River

Meghna river is one of the major rivers in Bangladesh,

specially famous for it’s great estaury that discharges the

flow of Ganga-Padma, Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Meghna itself. It is a

flood-prone river.

The downstream of Surma river from Ajmiriganj is often referred to as the Meghna. The Meghna has 2 distinct

parts: the Upper Meghna and the Lower Meghna.

The Upper Meghna from Kuliarchar to Shatnol is a comparatively small river. The Lower Meghna below

Shatnol is one of the largest rivers in the world because of its wide estuary mouth. The Lower Meghna is at times

treated as a separate river.

There are two major dams on the Ganga. One at Haridwar

diverts much of the Himalayan snowmelt into the Upper Ganges Canal, built by the British in 1854 to irrigate

the surrounding land.

The other dam is a serious hydroelectric affair at

Farakka, close to the point where the main flow of the

river enters Bangladesh, and the tributary Hooghly (also

known as Bhagirathi) continues in West Bengal

past Calcutta.

THE SUNDERBAN DELTA

The Sunderbans delta is the largest mangrove forest in

the world. It lies at the mouth of the Ganges and is spread across areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. It is largely a tangled swampland.

The silt deposits of the delta covers an area of 23000 sq

miles. The river courses in the delta are broad and active, carrying a vast amount of

water. The rains from June to October cause most of the Bangladeshi delta region to

flood.

On the seaward side of the delta are swamplands and

tidal forests called Sunderbans. The delta

experiences strong cyclonic storms before and after the

monsoon season, which can be devastating.

GANGES RIVER DELTA

The Ganges Fan is a large submarine accumulation of

sediment at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal, and

stretches from India, through Bangladesh, to Myanmar

from west to east, and past Sri Lanka to the south.

The sediment is carried through a series of

underwater canyons, some of which are more than 1500 miles (2,414km) in length.

(the Ganges Fan is not to be confused with the Ganges

Delta.)

GANGES CANAL

Ganges Canal was dug from Haridwar to Kanpur in later half of 19th century and a very wide network of small

tributary canals were constructed from the main canal to act as source of

irrigation in the fertile plains of Western Uttar Pradesh .

This canal is still supplying water to thousands of villages in western Uttar Pradesh and

water of Ganga, flowing in this canal, is in true sense the

life line of western Uttar Pradesh an area which

played a central role in the Green revolution of India.

HOW CLEAN ARE OUR WATERS???

Pollution of the Ganges has become so serious that

bathing in and drinking it’s water has become very dangerous. The major

polluting industry along the Ganges is the leather

industry especially near Kanpur.

In Kanpur, hides of goats, horses and cows are bought

in for tanning. The large amount of water used in this

process, mixed in with chemicals are dumped into

the Ganges.

A recent study has proved that the amount of sewage

flowing in Ganges has doubled since 1985. Nearly 1

billion liters of mostly untreated raw sewage that

enters the sewage everyday.

Also, inadequate cremation procedures contributes to a

large number of partially burnt or unburnt corpses

floating down the Ganga, not to mention livestock corpses.

There has been many clean up acts, such as GAP

(Ganges Action Plan) and the Oswald Plan. The GAP act

began in 1985.

The GAP act was meant to clean up India’s most

important river, but after twelve years of work and $300 million funding, the

GAP has achieved very few of it’s objectives.

The Oswald plan was to release thousands of turtles, which were supposed to eat the rotting corpses floating in

the water. Some people thought that the turtles would

leave the area.

In November 1991 a survey that was conducted showed

that 60% of the turtles remained in Varanasi area and were seen nibbling on

human flesh.

Hopefully, in the future the river Ganges will be as clean

as the Hindu pilgrimages believe it to be. It maybe a

while but with more coordinated effort the waters of the Ganges will be clean.

Can we help???

Central government approves Rs 7K crore for cleaning Ganga

The Ganga will flow clean and free from pollution by 2020, ...???

The Ganges River, considered to be sacred in India is getting a $1 billion clean up loan from the World Bank.The Ganges River (or Ganga as it also called) is 2500 km long and has incredibley high pollution, everything from industrial chemicals to raw sewage. The $1billion World Bank Ganga River Loan will support the clean up efforts launched by the Indian government. Clean up efforts that inlcude building water treatment plants, fixing dams and other water quality improvement measures.

“ Environmentalists say the river supports over 400 million people, and if the unabated pollution is not controlled, it will be the end of communities living along the banks.”

“Let each one of us be responsible and

ensure we are not contributors to pollution of our environment.”