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With a land area of 3,287,263 km (1,269,219 sq mi) consisting of diverse ecosystems, India has many rivers systems and perennial streams. The rivers of India can be classified into four groups – Himalayan, Deccan, Coastal, and Inland drainage. The Himalayan rivers, mainly fed by glaciers and snow melt, arise from the Himalayas. The Deccan rivers system consists of rivers in Peninsular India, that drain into the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. There are numerous short coastal rivers, predominantly on the West coast. There are few inland rivers, which do not drain into sea.

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 longest 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 the origin of few of the rivers such as the Chambal, the Banas and the Luni 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 largest of the peninsular rivers include the Godavari, the Krishna, the Mahanadi and the Kaveri.

River systems

As per the classification of Food and Agriculture Organization, the rivers systems are combined into 20 river units, which includes 14 major rivers systems and 99 smaller river basins grouped into six river units. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin is the largest, which covers 34% of the land area and contributes to nearly 59% of the available water resources.

List of rivers

Major rivers of India

Rank	River	Image	Length (km)	Origin	Outflow	Major tributaries	States/UT
1	Indus		3,180	Himalayas	Arabian Sea	Panjnad, Shyok, Dras, Zanskar	Ladakh, Gujarat
2	Brahmaputra		2,880		Bay of Bengal	Lhasa, Lohit, Subansiri, Teesta	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
3	Ganges		2,525			Yamuna, Ghaghara, Gomti, Gandaki, Kosi, Son	Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal
4	Godavari		1,465	Western Ghats		Manjira, Indravati, Sabari, Purna	Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh
5	Sutlej		1,450	Himalayas	Indus	Chenab, Beas	Himachal Pradesh, Punjab
6	Krishna		1,400	Western Ghats	Bay of Bengal	Bhima, Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha	Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh
7	Yamuna		1,376	Himalayas	Ganges	Chambal, Betwa, Ken	Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi
8	Narmada		1,312	Vindhya and Satpura	Arabian Sea	Kolar, Sher, Tawa	Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat
9	Ghagara		1,080	Himalayas	Ganges	Seti, Bheri	Uttar Pradesh, Bihar
10	Chambal		1,024	Vindhya and Satpura		Banas, Parbati, Shipra	Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
11	Mahanadi		900	Eastern Ghats	Bay of Bengal	Hasdeo, Seonath, Jonk, Ong River	Chhattisgarh, Odisha
12	Chenab		890	Himalayas	Sutlej	Ravi, Jhelum, Tawi	Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir
13	Kaveri		805	Western Ghats	Bay of Bengal	Amaravati, Hemavati, Bhavani, Noyyal	Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
14	Sone		784	Vindhya and Satpura	Ganges	Gopad, Rihand, Kanhar	Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar
15	Jhelum		729	Himalayas	Chenab	Poonch, Lidder, Neelum	Jammu and Kashmir
16	Ravi		720				Himachal Pradesh, Punjab
17	Kosi		720		Ganges	Sun Kosi, Arun, Tamur	Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar

See also

• Indian Rivers Inter-link

Notes

1. ^ The Jhelum and Ravi join the Chenab, the Beas River joins the Sutlej. Later the Chenab joins with the Sutlej to form the Panjnad River, which merges with the Indus.
2. The Indus River Delta is mostly in the Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India.
3. Brahmaputra splits into two distributaries with the western branch merging with the lower Ganga to form the Padma River and the eastern branch joining with the Meghna River. The Padma and Meghna rivers converge to form the Ganges Delta and flow out into the Bay of Bengal.

References

1. "India at a glance". Know India. Government of India. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
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.

• Lists of rivers of India