Sunday 30 June 2013
RIVER GANGA also called Ganges , great river of the plains of northern India. Although officially as well as popularly called the Ganga, both in Hindi and in other Indian languages, internationally it is known by its Anglicized name, the Ganges. For several millennia it has been the holy river of the Hindus. A wide and sluggish stream, flowing through one of the most fertile and densely populated tracts of territory in the world and despite its importance, its length of 2,510 km makes it relatively short by both world and Asian standards. Rising in the Himalayas and emptying into the Bay of Bengal, it drains a quarter of the territory of India, while its basin supports an immense concentration of people.
For most of its course the Ganga flows through Indian territory, although its large delta in the Bengal area lies mostly in Bangladesh. The general direction of the river's flow is from north-northwest to southeast. At its delta, the flow is generally southwards.
Physical features
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Rising in the southern Himalayas on the Indian side of the Tibet border, Ganga's five headstreams - the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini, Dhauliganga, and Pindar - all rise in the Uttarakhand region (the northern mountainous districts), a division of Uttar Pradesh. Of these, the two main headstreams are the Alaknanda (the longer of the two), which rises about 48 km north of the Himalayan peak of Nanda Devi, and the Bhagirathi, which originates about 3,050 m above sea level in an ice cave at the foot of the Himalayan glacier known as Gangotri. Gangotri itself is a sacred place for Hindu pilgrimage. The true source of the Ganga, however, is considered to be at Gaumukh, about 21 km southeast of Gangotri.Uniting at Devaprayag, the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi form a main stream known as the Ganga, which cuts through the outer (southern) Himalayas to emerge from the mountains at Rishikesh. It then flows onto the plain at Haridwar (Hardwar), another place held sacred by the Hindus.
With seasonal variations in the river's flow, its volume increases markedly as it receives more tributaries and enters a region of heavier rainfall. From April to June the melting Himalayan snows feed the river, while in the rainy season from July to September the rain-bearing monsoon winds cause floods. Within Uttar Pradesh, the principal right bank tributaries are the Yamuna river, which flows past Delhi, the capital of India, to join the Ganga near Allahabad, and the Tons, which flows north from the Vindhya range in Madhya Pradesh and joins it soon after. The main left-bank tributaries in Uttar Pradesh are the Ramganga, the Gomati, and the Ghaghara.
Next entering Bihar, its main tributaries from the Himalayan region to the north are the Gandak, the Burhi Gandak, the Ghugri, and the Kosi, and its most important southern tributary is the Son. The river then skirts the Rajmahal Hills to the south and flows southeast to Farakka, at the apex of the delta. In West Bengal, the last Indian state that the Ganga enters, the Mahananda joins it from the north. (Throughout West Bengal in India, as well as in Bangladesh, the Ganga is locally called the Padma.) The westernmost distributary of the delta is the Hugli (Hooghly), on the east bank of which stands the city of Kolkata. Two tributaries flowing in from the west, the Damodar and the Rupnarayan, join the Hugli itself. Joined by the mighty Brahmaputra in Bangladesh (which for about 241 km before the junction is called the Yamuna) near Goalundo Ghat, the combined stream, now called the Padma, joins with the Meghna river above Chandpur. The waters then flow to the Bay of Bengal through innumerable channels, the largest of which is known as the Meghna estuary.
Dhaka (Dacca), the capital of Bangladesh, stands on the Buriganga (old ganga), a tributary of the Dhaleswari. Apart from the Hugli and the Meghna, the other distributary streams that form the Ganga delta are, in West Bengal, the Jalangi and, in Bangladesh, the Matabhanga, the Bhairab, the Kabadak, the Garai-Madhumati, and the Arial Khan.
Constantly vulnerable to changes in its course in the delta region, especially since 1750, the Brahmaputra flowed past the city of Mymensingh in 1785; but now it flows more than 64 km west of it before joining the Ganga.
The delta, the seaward prolongation of silt deposits from the Ganga and Brahmaputra river valleys, covers an area of about 60,000 sq km and is composed of repeated alternations of clays, sands, and marls, with recurring layers of peat, lignite, and beds of what were once forests. The new deposits of the delta, known in Hindi and Urdu as the khadar , naturally occur in the vicinity of the present channels.
The southern surface of the Ganga delta has been formed by the rapid and comparatively recent deposition of enormous loads of silt. To the east the seaward side of the delta is being changed at a rapid rate by the formation of new lands, known as chars , and new islands. The western coast-line of the delta, however, has remained practically unchanged since the eighteenth century.
The rivers in the West Bengal area are sluggish; little water passes down them to the sea. In the Bangladeshi delta region, the rivers are broad and active, carrying plentiful water and connected by innumerable creeks. During the rains (from June to October) the greater part of the region is flooded to a depth of several feet, leaving the villages and homesteads, which are built on artificially raised land, isolated above the floodwaters. Communication between settlements during this season can be accomplished only by boat.
To the seaward side of the delta as a whole there is a vast stretch of tidal forests and swampland. The forests, called Sundarbans, are protected by India and Bangladesh for conservation purposes.
In certain parts of the delta there occur layers of peat, composed of forest vegetation and rice plants. In many natural depressions, known as bil, peat, still in the process of formation, has been used as a fertilizer by local farmers, and it has also been dried and used as a domestic and industrial fuel.
Climate and hydrology
Containing the largest river system on the subcontinent, the Ganga basin's water supply is dependent partly on the rains brought by the southwesterly monsoon winds from July to October, as well as on the flow from melting Himalayan snows, in the hot season from April to June. Precipitation in the river basin accompanies the southwest monsoon winds, but it also comes with tropical cyclones that originate in the Bay of Bengal between June and October. Only a small amount of rainfall occurs in December and January. The average annual rainfall varies from 760 mm at the western end of the basin to more than 2,286 mm at the eastern end. (In the upper Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh rainfall averages about 762 to 1,016 mm, in the Middle Plain of Bihar from 1,016 to 1,524 mm, and in the delta region between 1,524 and 2,540 mm). Producing strong cyclonic storms in the delta region both before the commencement of the monsoon season, from March to May, and at the end of it, from September to October, some of which result in much loss of life and the destruction of homes, crops, and livestock. One such storm, which occurred in November 1970, was of catastrophic proportions, resulting in the deaths of at least 200,000 and possibly as many as 500,000 people.
Showing little variation in relief over the entire surface of the Gangetic plain, the river's rate of flow is slow. Between the Yamuna river at Delhi and the Bay of Bengal, a distance of nearly 1,609 km, the elevation drops only some 213 m. Altogether the Ganga-Brahmaputra plains extend over an area of 777,000 sq km. The alluvial mantle of the plain, which in some places is more than 1,829 m thick, is possibly not more than 10,000 years old.
Plant and animal life
Once densely forested, historical writings indicate that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wild elephants, buffalo, bison, rhinoceroses, lions, and tigers were hunted in the Ganga-Yamuna area. Most of the original natural vegetation has disappeared from the Ganga basin as a whole, and the land is now intensely cultivated to meet the needs of an evergrowing population. Wild animals are few, except for deer, boars, and wildcats, and some wolves, jackals, and foxes. Only in the Sundarbans area of the delta are some Bengal tigers, crocodiles, and marsh deer still found. Fish abound in all the rivers, especially in the delta area, where they form an important part of the inhabitants' diet. Many varieties of birds are found, such as mynah, parrots, crows, kites, partridges, and fowls. In winter, duck and snipe migrate south across the high Himalayas, settling in large numbers in water-covered areas. In the Bengal area common fish include featherbacks (Notopteridae), barbs (Cyprinidae), walking catfish, gouramis (Anabantidae), and milkfish (Chanidae).
The people
Ethnically, the people of the Ganga basin are of mixed origin. Descending originally from Aryan ancestors in the west and centre of the basin, soon after, Turks, Mongols, Afghans, Persians, and Arabs came from the west and intermingled with them. To the east and south, largely in the Bengal area, an admixture of Tibetan, Burman, and miscellaneous hill people has also occurred. The Europeans, arriving still later, did not settle or intermarry to any extent.
Historically the Gangetic plain has constituted the heartland of Hindustan and has cradled its successive civilizations. The centre of the pre-Christian empire of Ashoka was Patna (Pataliputra), standing on the banks of the Ganga in Bihar. The centres of the great Mughal empire were at Delhi and Agra, on the western peripheries of the Ganga basin. Kannauj on the Ganga, north of Kanpur, was the centre of the feudatory empire of Harsa, which covered most of northern India in the middle of the seventh century. During the Muslim era, which began in the twelfth century, Muslim rule extended not only over the plain, but over all Bengal as well. Dhaka (Dacca) and Murshidabad in the delta region were centres of Muslim power.
Having founded Kolkata on the banks of the Hugli in the late seventeenth century, the British gradually advanced up the valley of the Ganga, reaching Delhi in the mid-nineteenth century.
A great number of cities have been built on the Gangetic Plain. Among the most notable are Roorkee, Saharanpur, Meerut, Agra (the city of the famous Taj Mahal mausoleum), Mathura (esteemed as the birth-place of Lord Krishna), Aligarh, Kanpur, Bareilly, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi (Banaras; the holy city), Patna, Bhagalpur, Rajshahi, Murshidabad, Burdwan, Kolkata, Howrah (Haora), Dhaka, Khulna, and Barisal.
In the delta, Kolkata and its satellite towns stretch for about 80 km along both banks of the Hugli, forming one of India's most important concentrations of population, commerce, and industry.
The holy river, rituals, the legends
Revered from the earliest times and still regarded as the holiest of rivers by the Hindus, she is personified as a goddess. Legend has it that Lord Vishnu yielding to the prayers of a great sage sent the goddess Ganga to earth. But the force with which she descended threatened to flood all that came in her path. So Lord Shiva entwined her in his long hair, to control her force, and make her tranquil. By bathing in her waters, one can attain salvation. While places of Hindu pilgrimage, called tirthas, are located throughout the subcontinent, those that are situated on the Ganga have particular significance. Among these are the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna near Allahabad, where a bathing festival, or the Kumbh mela (fair), is held in January and February. During this ceremony, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims immerse themselves in the river. Other holy places for immersion are at Varanasi (Banaras), or Kashi, and at Haridwar. The Hugli river at Kolkata also is regarded as holy. The places of pilgrimage on the Ganga also include Gangotri and the junction of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi headstreams. The Hindus cast the ashes of their dead upon the river, believing that they thus will go straight to heaven, and cremation ghats (temples at the summit of riverside steps) for burning the dead have been built in many places on the banks of the Ganga.
The economy
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Irrigation
Using the Ganga water for irrigation, either when the river is in flood or by means of gravity canals, has been common since ancient times as described in scriptures and mythological books written more than 2,000 years ago.
The cultivated area of the Ganga valley in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar benefits from a system of irrigation canals that has increased the production of such cash crops as sugar cane, cotton, and oilseeds. The older canals are mainly in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab (land between two rivers). The Upper Ganga Canal, with its distributaries, is 9,574 km long; it begins at Haridwar. The Lower Ganga Canal, which is 8238 km with distributaries, begins at Naraura. The Sarda Canal irrigates land in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. The land north of the Ganga, being higher, is difficult to irrigate by canal, and ground water must be pumped to the surface. Channels running from hand-dug wells also irrigate large areas in Uttar Pradesh and in Bihar.
The Ganga-Kabadak irrigation plan in Bangladesh covers parts of the districts of Khulna, Jessore, and Kushtia that lie within the moribund part of the delta where silt and overgrowth choke the rivers.
Total annual rainfall in this region is generally below 1,524 mm, and winters are comparatively dry. The system of irrigation is based on both gravity canals and electrically powered lifting devices.
Navigation
In ancient times the Ganga and some of its tributaries, especially in the east, were navigable. According to Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador visiting India, the Ganga and its main tributaries were being navigated as early as the fourth century BC. In the fourteenth century, inland-river navigation in the Ganga basin was still flourishing. By the nineteenth century, irrigation-cum-navigation canals formed the main arteries of the water-transport system. The advent of paddle steamers revolutionized inland transport, stimulating the growth of the indigo industry in Bihar and Bengal. Regular steamer services ran from Kolkata up the Ganga to Allahabad and far beyond, as well as to Agra on the Yamuna and up the Brahmaputra river.
The decline of large-scale water transport began with the construction of railways during the mid-nineteenth century. The increasing withdrawal of water for irrigation also has affected navigation. River traffic now is insignificant beyond the middle Ganga basin around Allahabad, much of what there is consists of various types of rural rivercraft.
West Bengal and Bangladesh, however, continue to rely on the waterways to transport jute, tea, grain, and other agricultural and rural products. Principal river ports are Chalna, Khulna, Barisal, Chandpur, Narayanganj, Goalundo Ghat, Sirajganj, Bhairab Bazar, and Fechuganj in Bangladesh, and Kolkata, Goal-para, Dhubri, and Dibrugarh in India. The partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 virtually halted the large trade in tea and jute formerly carried to Kolkata from Assam by inland waterway.
In Bangladesh, inland water transport is the responsibility of the Inland Water Transport Authority. In India, the Central Inland Water Transport Board formulates policy for inland waterways, while the Inland Waterways Authority develops and maintains an extensive system of national waterways. Approximately 1,609 km of waterways in the Ganga basin from Allahabad to Haldia are included in the system.
The construction of the Farakka Barrage at the head of the delta, just inside Indian territory in West Bengal, has been a source of contention between India and Bangladesh.
According to the Indian view, the port of Kolkata had deteriorated because of the deposit of silt and the intrusion of saline seawater. In order to ameliorate the condition of Kolkata by flushing away the seawater and raising the water level, India sought to have quantities of fresh water diverted from the Ganga at the site of the Farakka Barrage. The water there is now carried by means of a large canal into the Bhagirathi river, which joins the Hugli river above Kolkata.
According to Bangladesh, all riparian countries should exercise joint control over the waters of international rivers for the sake of mutual prosperity. The Ganga waters are also vital to irrigation, to navigation, and to the prevention of saline incursions in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has maintained that the Farakka Barrage has deprived it of a valuable source of water upon which its prosperity depends. India, on the other hand, has favoured a bilateral approach to the Ganga waters problem. A series of interim agreements on water sharing has been reached between the two countries, but a permanent settlement has not been achieved. An Indian proposal to divert water from the Brahmaputra in Assam to the Ganga through a canal passing through Bangladesh has been countered by a Bangladeshi proposal to construct a canal from eastern Nepal to Bangladesh through West Bengal; neither proposal has received a positive response. Catastrophic floods in Bangladesh in 1987 and 1988 - the latter being among the most severe in the country's history - prompted the World Bank to prepare a long-term flood-control plan for the region.
Hydroelectric power
The hydroelectric potential of the Ganga has been estimated at 13 million kilowatts, of which about two-fifths lie within India and the rest in Nepal. Some of this potential has been exploited in India with such hydroelectric developments as those along the Chambal and Rihand rivers.
The Gangetic plain is one of the most fertile and densely populated regions in the world. because there is little relief across the surface of the plain, the Ganga for most of its course is a wide and sluggish stream. Its total drainage basin covers an area of about 975,900 sq km, or roughly a quarter of the territory of India, and supports nearly half a billion people. The land of the basin is intensely cultivated. The water supply of the Ganga system is dependent partly on the rains brought by the monsoon winds from July to October, as well as on the flow from melting Himalayan snows in the hot season from April to June.
Also called North Indian plain, extensive north-central section of the Indian subcontinent, stretching westward from (and including) the Brahmaputra river valley and the Ganga delta to the Indus river valley. The region contains the subcontinent's richest and most densely populated areas. The greater part of the plain is made up of alluvial soil, deposited by the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers in the east and the Indus river in the west. The eastern part of the plain has light rains or drought in the winter, but in summer rainfall is so heavy that vast areas become swamps or shallow lakes. The plain becomes progressively drier towards the west where it incorporates the Thar (Great Indian) Desert.
