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20 INDIA : PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT course. While entering the plains, they form as the water divide between the Indus and depositional features like flat valleys, ox-bow Ganga drainage systems. Likewise, the down- lakes, flood plains, braided channels, and thrusting of the Malda gap area between the deltas near the river mouth. In the Himalayan Rajmahal hills and the Meghalaya plateau reaches, the course of these rivers is highly duringthemid-pleistoceneperiod,divertedthe tortous, but over the plains they display a Ganga and the Brahmaputra systems to flow strong meandering tendency and shift their towards the Bay of Bengal. courses frequently. River Kosi, also know as the ‘sorrow of Bihar’, has been notorious for THE R IVER SYSTEMS OF THE frequentlychangingitscourse.TheKosibrings H IMALAYAN D RAINAGE huge quantity of sediments from its upper The Himalayan drainage consists of several reaches and deposits it in the plains. The river systems but the following are the major course gets blocked, and consequently, the river changes its course. Why does the Kosi river systems: river bring such huge quantity of sediments The Indus System from the upper reaches? Do you think that the discharge of the water in the rivers in Itisoneofthelargestriverbasinsofthe world, general and the Kosi in particular, remains the covering an area of 11,65,000 sq. km (in India same,ordoesitfluctuate?Whendoestheriver itis321,289sq. kmandatotallengthof2,880 coursereceivethemaximumquantityofwater? km (in India 1,114 km). The Indus also What are the positive and negative effects of known as the Sindhu, is the westernmost of flooding? the Himalayan rivers in India. It originates from a glacier near Bokhar Chu (31°°15' N E VOLUTION OF THE H IMALAYAN D RAINAGE latitude and 81°°40' E longitude) in the There are difference of opinion about the Tibetan region at an altitude of 4,164 m in evolution of the Himalayan rivers. However, the Kailash Mountain range. In Tibet, it is known as ‘Singi Khamban; or Lion’s mouth. geologists believe that a mighty river called After flowing in the northwest direction Shiwalik or Indo-Brahma traversed the entire between the Ladakh and Zaskar ranges, it longitudinalextentoftheHimalayafromAssam to Punjab and onwards to Sind, and finally passes through Ladakh and Baltistan. It cuts across the Ladakh range, forming a discharged into the Gulf of Sind near lower spectacular gorge near Gilgit in Ladakh. It Punjab during the Miocene period some 5-24 enters into Pakistan near Chilas in the millionyearsagoTheremarkablecontinuityof Dardistan region. Find out the area known the Shiwalik and its lacustrine origin and alluvial deposits consisting of sands, silt, clay, Dardistan. TheIndusreceivesanumberofHimalayan boulders and conglomerates support this tributaries such as the Shyok, the Gilgit, the viewpoint. Zaskar, the Hunza, the Nubra, the Shigar, the Itis opinedthatinduecourseoftimeIndo– Gasting and the Dras. It finally emerges out of Brahmariverwasdismemberedintothreemain thehillsnearAttockwhereitreceivestheKabul drainage systems: (i) the Indus and its five river on its right bank. The other important tributaries in the western part; (ii) the Ganga tributaries joining the right bank of the Indus and its Himalayan tributaries in the central are the Khurram, the Tochi, the Gomal, the part; and (iii) the stretch of the Brahmaputra Viboa and the Sangar. They all originate in the in Assam and its Himalayan tributaries in the Sulaiman ranges. The river flows southward eastern part. The dismemberment was andreceives‘Panjnad’alittleaboveMithankot. probably due to the Pleistocene upheaval in ThePanjnadisthenamegiventothefiverivers the western Himalayas, including the uplift of of Punjab, namely the Satluj, the Beas, the the Potwar Plateau (Delhi Ridge), which acted Ravi, the Chenab and the Jhelum. It finally 2026-27