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What is ‘drainage system’?

• The progression of water through clear cut channels is known as drainage and the organization of such channels is known as a ‘drainage system’.
• A stream empties the water gathered out of a particular region, which is called its ‘catchment region’.
• A region depleted by a waterway and its feeders is known as a waste bowl
• The limit line isolating one drainage bowl from the other is known as the watershed
• The catchments of huge streams are called waterway bowls while those of little creeks and rivulets are frequently alluded to as watersheds. There is, notwithstanding, a slight contrast between a stream bowl and a watershed. Watersheds are little in region while the bowls cover bigger regions.
• The drainage example of a region is the result of the topographical time span, nature and design of rocks, geography, slant, measure of water streaming and the periodicity of the stream.

What is Drainage Pattern?

• It alludes to the arrangement of stream of surface water for the most part through the types of streams and bowls.
• The drainage framework relies on elements like slant of land, geographical construction, measure of volume of water and speed of water.

Types of Drainage Patterns

1. Dendritic Drainage Pattern
2. Parallel Drainage Pattern
3. Trellis Drainage Pattern
4. Radical Drainage Pattern
5. Centripetal Drainage Pattern
6. Rectangle Drainage Pattern

Drainage Pattern Name	Features
1.Dendritic Drainage Pattern	Drainage System Of India: It is the most well-known structure and looks like the stretching example of tree roots.The dendritic example creates where the stream channel follows the slant of the territory.The design creates in regions where the stone underneath the stream has no specific construction and can be disintegrated similarly effectively this way and that.Feeders join bigger streams at intense points (under 90°).E.g. The streams of the northern fields; Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra
2.Parallel Drainage Pattern	It creates in districts of equal, lengthened landforms where there is an articulated slant to the surface.Tributary streams will generally loosen up in an equal like style following the slant of the surface.E.g. The streams beginning in the Western Ghats; Godavari, Kaveri, Krishna, and Tungabhadra.
3.Trellis Drainage Pattern	Trellis waste creates in collapsed geography where hard and delicate rocks exist lined up with one another.Down-turned folds called synclines structure valleys in which dwell the primary channel of the stream.Such an example is shaped when the essential feeders of fundamental streams stream lined up with one another and optional feeders go along with them at right points.E.g. The waterways in the upper piece of the Himalayan locale; Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra.
4.Radical Drainage Pattern	The spiral seepage design creates around a focal raised point and is normal to narrowly formed elements, for example, volcanoes.When the streams begin from a slope and stream this way and that, the seepage design is known as ‘outspread’.E.g. The streams beginning from the Amarkantak range; Narmada and Son (feeder of Ganga).
5.Centripetal Drainage Pattern	It is the polar opposite of the outspread as streams stream toward a focal gloom.During wetter parts of the year, these streams feed fleeting lakes, which vanish away during dry periods. Now and again, salt pads are additionally made in these dry lake beds as salt broke down in the lake water hastens out of arrangement and is left behind when the water dissipates away.E.g. Loktak lake in Manipur.
6.Rectangular Drainage Pattern	The rectangular seepage design is found in locales that have gone through blaming.It creates on a firmly joined rough territory.Streams follow the easiest course of action and consequently are packed where uncovered rock is the most fragile.The feeder streams make sharp twists and enter the standard at high points.E.g. Streams found in the Vindhya mountain range; Chambal, Betwa and Ken.

The Indian waste framework might be separated on different bases.

Based on release of water (directions to the ocean), it could be gathered into:

• The Arabian Sea waste; and
• The Bay of Bengal waste.

They are isolated from one another through the Delhi edge, the Aravallis and the Sahyadris.

Nearly 77% of the waste region comprising of the Ganga, the Brahmaputra, the Mahanadi, the Krishna, and so on is situated towards the Bay of Bengal while 23% containing the Indus, the Narmada, the Tapi, the Mahi and the Periyar frameworks release their waters in the Arabian Sea

Based on the size of the watershed, the waste bowls of India are gathered into three classifications:

1. Major waterway bowls with more than 20,000 sq. km of catchment region. It incorporates 14 seepage bowls like the Ganga, the Brahmaputra, the Krishna, the Tapi, the Narmada, the Mahi, the Pennar, the Sabarmati, the Barak, and so on.
2. Medium waterway bowls with catchment region between 2,000-20,000 sq. km consolidating 44 waterway bowls like the Kalindi, the Periyar, the Meghna, and so forth.
3. Minor waterway bowls with catchment areas of under 2,000 sq. km incorporate a genuinely decent number of waterways streaming in the space of low precipitation. 

The drainage system of India, that is, the rivers, is divided into two major groups:

• The Himalayan Rivers
• The Peninsular Rivers

Drainage System of India

Himalayan Drainage System

The three primary Himalayan streams are the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra. These streams are long and are joined by numerous feeders. A waterway alongside its feeders structures a stream framework.

Advancement of Himalayan Drainage System

• There was a strong stream called Shivalik or Indo-Brahma navigated the whole longitudinal degree of the Himalaya from Assam to Punjab and onwards to Sind, lastly released into the Gulf of Sind close to bring down Punjab during the Miocene time frame nearly quite a while back.
• The noteworthy coherence of the Shivalik and its lacustrine beginning and alluvial stores comprising of sands, sediment, mud, stones and aggregates support this perspective. Himalayan waterways later got eviscerated into three significant frameworks.
• This dismantled was likely because of the Pleistocene commotion in the western Himalayas, including the elevate of the Potwar Plateau (Delhi Ridge), which went about as the water split between the Indus and Ganga seepage frameworks.
• Moreover, the down-pushing of the Malda hole (Garo-Raajmahal Gap) region between the Raajmahal slopes and the Meghalaya level during the mid-Pleistocene time frame, redirected the Ganga and the Brahmaputra frameworks to stream towards the Bay of Bengal.

The Indus River System

• It ascends close to lake ManSarovar in Tibet from the ice sheets of Kailas ranges. It enters India and keeps on streaming NW among Ladakh and Zanskar ranges.
• Indus gets from PANJNAD (Panchnad) collected waters of five eastern feeders

The right-bank tributaries of Indus:

• Shyok
• Gilgit
• Hunza
• Nubra
• Kabul
• Khurram
• Tochi
• Gomal
• Sangar
• Kunar

The left-bank tributaries of Indus:

• Zaskar
• ‘Panjnad’ joins Indus a little above Mithankot.
• The Panjnad is the name given to the five rivers of Punjab, namely:

• Satluj
• Beas
• Ravi
• Chenab
• Jhelum

The Ganga

• The Ganga starts from the Gangotri icy mass close to Gaumukh in the Uttarkashi area of Uttarakhand.
• Be that as it may, the waterway, when it starts from the Gangotri ice sheet, is known as the Bhagirathi.
• At Devprayag, the Bhagirathi converges with another stream, i.e., the Alaknanda; and from here, it is known as the Ganga.
• The Alaknanda begins from the Satopanth icy mass above Badrinath.

• The all out length of the Ganga in India is 2,525 km, which is shared by Uttarakhand (110 km); Uttar Pradesh (1,450 km); Bihar (445 km); and West Bengal (520 km).
• The Ganga waterway framework is the biggest stream framework in India.
• The Son is a significant right bank feeder of the Ganga; notwithstanding, significant left bank feeders are the Ramganga, the Gomati, the Ghaghara, the Gandak, the Kosi, and the Mahananda.
• Beginning from the Yamunotri ice sheet on the western slants of Bandarpunch range (6,316 km), the Yamuna is the longest feeder of the Ganga.
• The Yamuna joins the Ganga at Allahabad (Prayag), Uttar Pradesh.
• The Chambal, the Sind, the Betwa, and the Kenon are the right bank feeders of the Yamuna and the Hindan, the Rind, the Sengar, the Varuna, and so forth are the left bank feeders.
• The Chambal ascends close to Mhow in the Malwa level of Madhya Pradesh.

• The Chambal is eminent for its fruitless no man’s land geology, known as the Chambal gorges (as shown in the image given under).
• Beginning from the Nepal Himalayas between the Dhaulagiri and Mount Everest, the Gandak comprises of two streams, in particular Kaligandak and Trishulganga.
• The Gandak joins the Ganga at Sonpur close to Patna, Bihar.
• The Ghagra begins from the Mapchachungo ice sheets and joins the Ganga at Chhapra, Bihar.
• The Kosi starts from the north of Mount Everest in Tibet where it is known as the Arun.
• The Damodar channels the eastern edges of the Chota Nagpur level, where it moves through a fracture valley lastly joins the Hugli.
• The Barakar is the fundamental feeder of the Damodar.
• The Sarda or Saryu River ascends from the Milam glacial mass in the Nepal Himalayas where it is known as the Goriganga. Notwithstanding, along the Indo-Nepal line, it is called Kali or Chauk, where it joins the Ghaghara.
• Beginning from the Darjeeling slopes, the Mahananda joins the Ganga as its last left bank feeder in West Bengal.
• Beginning from the Amarkantak level, the Son is an enormous south bank feeder of the Ganga; it joins the Ganga at Arrah, Bihar.

Yamuna River System

• The Yamuna River is the biggest feeder of the Ganga River.
• It begins from the Yamunotri ice sheet, at the Bandarpoonch top in Uttarakhand.
• The principal feeders joining the stream incorporate the Sin, Hindon, Betwa Ken, and Chambal.
• The Tons is the biggest feeder of the Yamuna.
• The catchment of the stream stretches out to the provinces of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

The Brahmaputra

• The Brahmaputra begins from the Chemayungdung ice sheet of the Kailash range close to the Mansarovar.
• In Tibet, the Brahmaputra is known as the Tsangpo (signifies ‘the purifier’).
• The Rango Tsangpo is the significant right bank feeder of the Brahmaputra in Tibet.
• The Brahmaputra goes into India close to the west of Sadiya town in Arunachal Pradesh.
• Significant left bank feeders of the Brahmaputra are Lohit, Dibang or Sikang, Burhi Dihing, and Dhansari.
• Significant right bank feeders of the Brahmaputra are the Subansiri, Kameng, Manas, and Sankosh.
• The Tista joins the Brahmaputra on its right bank in Bangladesh and from here, the waterway is known as the Yamuna.

Peninsular Drainage System

Advancement Of Peninsular Drainage

• Geologists accept that the Sahyadri-Aravali hub was the principal water partition previously.
• As indicated by one speculation, the current promontory is the excess portion of a greater body of land.
• The Western Ghats were situated in this expanse of land.
• So one seepage was towards east streaming into Bay of Bengal and the other towards west depleting into Arabian Sea.
• The western piece of the Peninsula broke and lowered in the Arabian Sea during the early Tertiary time frame (agreeing with the arrangement of Himalayas).
• During the crash of the Indian plate, the Peninsular block was exposed to subsidence in couple of districts making a progression of cracks (box, issues).
• The now west streaming waterways of the Peninsula, in particular the Narmada and the Tapi move through these breaks.
• Straight shoreline, steep western slant of the Western Ghats, and the shortfall of delta developments on the western coast makes this hypothesis a chance.
• It is accepted that the west streaming peninsular waterways don’t stream in the valleys shaped by the actual streams.
• Maybe they have involved two issue fractures in rocks running lined up with the Vindhyas.
• These deficiencies should be brought about by the twist of the northern piece of the Peninsula at the hour of commotion of the Himalayas.
• The Peninsula block, south of the breaks, shifted somewhat eastwards during the occasion hence giving the direction to the whole seepage towards the Bay of Bengal.
• Promontory streams are a lot more seasoned than the Himalayan waterways.
• The peninsular waste is for the most part Concordant aside from few waterways in the upper peninsula area.
• They are non-lasting streams with a greatest release in the blustery season.
• The peninsular waterways have arrived at mature stage {Fluvial Landforms} and have nearly arrived at their base level. [Vertical down cutting is negligible] which are described by wide and shallow valleys.
• The waterway banks have delicate slants with the exception of a restricted parcel where blaming structures steep sides.
• The principal water partition in peninsular streams is shaped by the Western Ghats, which run from north to south near the western coast.
• The speed of water in the waterways and the heap conveying limit of the streams is low because of low slope.
• A large portion of the significant waterways of the landmass, for example, the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Cauvery stream eastwards and channel into the Bay of Bengal.
• These waterways make deltas at their mouths. However, the west streaming waterways of Narmada and Tapi as well as those starting from the Western Ghats and falling in the Arabian Sea structure estuaries instead of deltas.
• There are not many spots where streams structure superimposed and restored waste which are addressed by Examples: The Jog on the Sharvati (289 m), Yenna of Mahabaleshwar (183 m), Sivasamundram on the Cauvery (101 m), Gokak on the Gokak (55 m), Kapildhara (23 m) and Dhuandar (15 m) on the Narmada are the significant cascades in the Peninsular India.
• Streams that channel into Bay of Bengal: The Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna, the Cauvery and a few more modest waterways depletes south-east into the Bay of Bengal.
• Waterways that channel into Arabian Sea: The Narmada, the Tapi, the Mahi streaming west as well as a few little streams starting from the Western Ghats stream westwards into the Arabian Sea.

The Narmada River System

• The Narmada is a waterway situated in focal India.
• It ascends to the highest point of the Amarkantak Hill in Madhya Pradesh state.
• It frames the conventional boondocks between North India and South India.
• It is one of the significant streams of peninsular India. Just the Narmada, the Tapti, and the Mahi streams run from east to west.
• The waterway moves through the provinces of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
• It channels into the Arabian Sea in the Bharuch area of Gujarat.

The Tapi River System

• It is a focal Indian waterway. It is one of the main waterways of peninsular India with the run from east to west.
• It starts in the Eastern Satpura Range of southern Madhya Pradesh state.
• It streams in a toward the west course, depleting a few significant noteworthy spots like Madhya Pradesh’s Nimar district, East Vidarbha locale and Maharashtra’s Khandesh in the northwest corner of the Deccan Plateau and South Gujarat prior to depleting into the Gulf of Cambay of the Arabian Sea.
• The River Basin of Tapi River lies generally in eastern and northern regions of Maharashtra state.
• The stream likewise covers a few locale of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat too.
• The vital feeders of Tapi River are Waghur River, Aner River, Girna River, Purna River, Panzara River and Bori River.

The Godavari River System

• The Godavari River is the second-longest course in India with earthy water.
• The stream is frequently alluded to as the Dakshin (South) Ganga or Vriddhi (Old) Ganga.
• It is an occasional waterway, dried during the summers, and extends during the storms.
• This waterway starts from Trimbakeshwar, close to Nasik in Maharashtra.
• It streams southeast across south-focal India through the provinces of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Orissa, and channels into the Bay of Bengal.
• The waterway shapes a fruitful delta at Rajahmundry.
• The banks of this waterway have numerous journey destinations, Nasik(MH), Bhadrachalam(TS), and Trimbak. A portion of its feeders incorporate Pranahita (Combination of Penuganga and Warda), Indravati River, Bindusara, Sabari, and Manjira.
• Asia’s biggest rail-cum-street span which joins Kovvur and Rajahmundry is situated on the stream Godavari.

The Krishna River System

• Krishna is one of the longest streams of India, which starts from Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra.
• It moves through Sangli and channels the ocean in the Bay of Bengal.
• The stream moves through the provinces of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• Tungabhadra River is the super feeder which itself is shaped by the Tunga and Bhadra waterways that start in the Western Ghats.
• Dudhganga Rivers, Koyna, Bhima, Mallaprabha, Dindi, Ghataprabha, Warna, Yerla, and Music are a portion of different feeders.

The kaveri River System

• The kaveri is otherwise called Ganga of South India “Dakshin Bharat ki Ganga”.
• It begins from Talakaveri situated in the Western Ghats.
• It is a well known journey and vacationer place in the Kodagu locale of Karnataka.
• The headwaters of the stream are in the Western Ghats scope of Karnataka state, and from Karnataka through Tamil Nadu.
• The stream channels into the Bay of Bengal. The waterway upholds water system for horticulture and is considered for of help of the old realms and present day urban areas of South India.
• The waterway has numerous feeders called Arkavathy, Shimsha, Hemavati, Kapila, Shimsha, Honnuhole, Amaravati, Lakshmana Kabini, Lokapavani, Bhavani, Noyyal, and Tirtha.

The Mahanadi River System

• The Mahanadi begins from the Satpura Range of focal India and it is a stream in eastern India.
• It streams east to the Bay of Bengal. The stream depletes the territory of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Orissa.
• The biggest dam, the Hirakud Dam, is based on the stream.

Frequently Asked Question

Q1.What do you mean by River bowls?

Ans.The district depleted by a waterway and its feeders is all known as a stream seepage bowl. Numerous different watersheds make up a waterway bowl. A small stream bowl is alluded to as a watershed. Each feeder and stream has own watershed channels into a greater stream or wetlands.

Q2.What are the significant feeders of Brahmaputra?

Ans.The Burhi Dihing and Dhansari (South) are key left bank feeders, while the Subansiri, Kameng, Manas, and Sankosh are significant right bank feeders.

Q3.Where is the beginning of the Indus stream framework?

Ans.It is one of the world’s significant stream bowls. The Indus River, ordinarily known as the Sindhu, is India’s westernmost Himalayan waterway. It springs from an ice sheet at Bokhar Chu in the Kailash Mountain range in Tibet.