Geography
The Brahmaputra River Basin consists of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, which originates in Tibet and the Barak River starting in India. These rivers all converge in Bangladesh as the Meghna River and flow out to the Bay of Bengal. The river basin is a wide land area made up of parts of India, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
The Brahmaputra River flows for 1,800 miles through Tibet, India, and Bangladesh. Starting in the Himalayas in Tibet as the Tsangpo River, the river flows eastward for 704 miles. At the Shuomatan Point, the river bends and enters India crossing the Assam Valley. It then flows south through Bangladesh exiting at the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta into the Bay of Bengal.
The river drains the Himalaya east of the Indo-Nepal border, southern-central portion of the Tibetan plateau above theGanges basin, south-eastern portion of Tibet, the Patkai-Bum hills, the northern slopes of the Meghalaya hills, the Assam plains and the northern portion of Bangladesh. The basin, especially south of Tibet is characterized by high levels of rainfall.Kangchenjunga (8,586m) is the only peak above 8,000m and the highest point within the Brahmaputra basin.
The Brahmaputra's upper course was long unknown, and its identity with the Yarlung Tsangpo was only established by exploration in 1884–86. This river is often called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river.
The lower reaches are sacred to Hindus. While most rivers on the Indian subcontinent have female names, this river has a rare male name, as it means "son of Brahma" in Sanskrit (putra means "son").
Brief Description
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The source of this river lies in the Kanglung Kang Glacier near the Kailash range of
The catchment area of the river falls in four countries. Although the main river does not flow through the
The
The southern (
In
The culturable area of the basin is 12.15 M-ha which is 6.2% of the culturable area of the country.
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Stream Network |
The numbers represents average flow in cumec.
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Drainage Area of the Basin | Name of State | Drainage area (in Km2) | ||||||||||
Arunachal Pradesh | 81,600 | |||||||||||
70,700 | ||||||||||||
Meghalaya | 11,800 | |||||||||||
Nagaland | 10,900 | |||||||||||
7,300 | ||||||||||||
12,700 | ||||||||||||
Total Drainage Area of the Basin (in Km2) | 195,000 | |||||||||||
Topography
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The
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Nature of Topography
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Area under Topography (sq. km)
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Geographical Location
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High Tibetan Plateau
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293,000
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Southern Part of the
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High Himalayan mountains
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137,050
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Part of Himalayan
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56,200
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Part of
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Lower (
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37,200
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Part of 3 states of
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Plains
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56,550
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Part of the 2 plains districts of
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Coastal Region
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Negligible
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Coastal region of
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Water potential
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Surface Water potential (Km3)
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537.2
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Ground Water potential (Km3)
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27.9
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Total Water potential in the basin (Km3)
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565.1
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Hydropower Potential
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Sub-basin wise estimated hydro potential of
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Basin/Rivers
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No. of schemes identified
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Potential at 60% load factor (MW)
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Dihang-Dibang
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28
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13,615
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Lohit
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11
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4,152
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Subansiri
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25
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6,893
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19
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789
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Kameng
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34
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1,982
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Kalang (Kopili)
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16
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510
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Teesta
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30
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3,021
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03
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50
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Barak and neighboring rivers
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60
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3,908
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Total
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226
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34,920
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Water Utilization
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Surface Water Utilization
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Drinking purposes
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Irrigation purposes
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Ground Water Utilization
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Drinking purposes
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Irrigation purposes
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Tributaries with drainage area in sq. km.
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Name of the Tributary
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Drainage area (Km2)
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Jiadhol
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77.3
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Subansiri
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4.3
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Ranganadi
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23.8
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Borgong
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36.4
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Jia-Bharali
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28.1
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Gabharu
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80.7
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Belsiri
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75.4
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Dhansiri (N)
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65.2
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Noa-nadi
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81.4
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Nonoi
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76.2
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Barnadi
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82.8
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Puthimari
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66.6
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Pagladiya
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75.8
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Manas
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14.1
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Champamati
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86.8
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Gaurang
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81.5
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Tipkai
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90.2
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Sankosh
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7.6
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Doyang
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Water Quality of Basin
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The major ion chemistry of the
Surface suspended sediments range from fine sand to clay, the size fraction greater than 12 mm constituting an important size population. Surface suspended sediments are moderately to poorly sorted with greater amounts of finer material in the distribution, particularly during the rainy season. The detrital contribution in the form of Quartz, Feldspar and Mica make up more than 80% of the mineralogy. Chlorite, Illite, and Kaolinite constitute about 95% of the clay minerals.
Sediment chemistry does not reveal any marked spatial or temporal variation. However, spatial variation in the metal/aluminum ratio in some cases has been observed. This may be attributed to continuous addition of freshly eroded materials by a large number of tributaries at different points of the main stem. Since there is hardly any major industry in the catchment area and the amounts of sediment carried by the tributaries are enormous, there is not enough ground to link any occasional rise in metal concentration to any point source.
The major sources of carbon in the
Suspended sediments play a significant role on the overall solute and sediment biogeochemistry of the river. The biogeochemistry of
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Mythology
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