Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Palaeo and Present Channel of Assi River, Uttar Pradesh, India


Affiliations
1 Department of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, India
2 Water Resources Assessment Division, National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Hyderabad 500 037, India
 

The Assi river in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, is now a small, local, ephemeral floodplain tributary of River Ganga, with a length of about 8 km and catchment area of about 22 km2. It has also turned into a filthy drain. There are evidences in the form of palaeochannels, through patterns of water bodies and settlements along them, to suggest the origin of Assi river near Allahabad flowing through a distance of about 120 km up to Varanasi to meet the Ganga. There is also the possibility that Assi started as a takeoff from River Ganga and flowed as a Yazoo stream. Through on-screen digitization from high and medium-resolution remote sensing data – BHUVAN and Google Earth, CORONA aerial photographs, IRS P6 LISS-IV, Landsat 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 – and a number of cross profiles from SRTM 30 m digital elevation model (DEM), palaeochannel of Assi has been delineated. Also, a 1 m DEM was generated for the present Assi catchment area from about 5000 DGPS points to present proof that the present Assi is a misfit in once a wider valley shaped by heavy discharge coming from a greater length of channel and a larger catchment area.

Keywords

Catchment Area, Flood Plains, Palaeochannel, Remote Sensing.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Prudhvi Raju, K. N., Remote sensing: status in Indian geography. In The Roots of Indian Geography: Search and Research (eds Singh, R. L. and Singh, R. P. B.), The National Geographical Journal of India, The National Geographical Society of India, Varanasi, 1992, vol. 34, pp. 195–204.

  • Wray, R. A., Palaeochannels of the Namoi River Floodplain, New South Wales, Australia: the use of multispectral Landsat imagery to highlight a Late Quaternary change in fluvial regime. Austr. Geogr., 2009, 40(1), 29–49; https://doi:10.1080/00049180802656952.

  • Karmanov, V. N., Chernov, A. V., Zaretskaya, N. E., Panin, A. V. and Volokitin, A. V., Palaeochannel studies in archaeology: the case of the Vychegda River, northeastern European Russia. Archaeol. Ethnol. Anthropol. Eurasia, 2013, 41, 83–93; http://doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2013.11.008.

  • Ghose, B., Pandey, S., Singh, S. and Lal, G., Geomorphology of the Central Luni Basin, Western Rajasthan. Ann. Arid Zone, 1966, 5(1), 10–25.

  • Ghose, B., Kar, A. and Husain, Z., The lost course of the Sarasvati river in the Great Indian Desert: new evidences from Landsat imagery. Geogr. J. London, 1979, 145(3), 446–451.

  • Yash Pal, Baldev, S., Sood, R. K. and Agarwal, D. P., Remote sensing of ‘lost’ Sarasvati. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth and Planet. Sci.), 1980, 89(1), 317–331.

  • Rajawat, A. S., Verma, P. K. and Nayak, S., Reconstruction of palaeodrainage network in northwest India: retrospect and prospects of remote sensing based studies. Proc. Indian Natl. Sci. Acad., Part A, 2003, 69(2), 217–230.

  • Radhakrishna, B. P. and Merh, S. S. (eds), Vedic Saraswati: Evolutionary History of a Lost River in North-west India, Geological Society of India, Bengaluru, Memoir 42, 2002, pp. 1–327.

  • Qunghai, X., Chen, W., Xuanqing, Z. and Xiaolian, Y., Palaeochannels on the North China plain: stage, division and palaeoenvironment. Geomorphology, 1996, 18, 15–25.

  • Kumar, H. and Rajawat, A. S., Potential of RISAT-1 SAR data in detecting palaeochannels in parts of the Thar Desert, India. Curr. Sci., 2017, 113(10), 1899–1905.

  • Jana, S., Mohanty, W. K., Gupta, S., Rath, C. S. and Patnaik, P., Multi-pronged search for palaeo-channels near Konark Temple, Odisha – implications for the mythical river Chandrabhaga. Curr. Sci., 2018, 115(2), 300–309; http://doi:10.18520/cs/v111/i8/13871393.

  • Gautam, A. M., Application of IRS-1A data for delineating buried channels in southern part of Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Photonirvachak J. Indian Soc. Remote Sensing, 1990, 18(3), 52– 55.

  • Joshi, E. B., Gazetteer of India, Uttar Pradesh District, Varanasi, Department of District Gazetteer, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, 1965, pp. 7–8.


Abstract Views: 408

PDF Views: 158




  • Palaeo and Present Channel of Assi River, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract Views: 408  |  PDF Views: 158

Authors

Mallikarjun Mishra
Department of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, India
K. N. Prudhvi Raju
Department of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, India
P. V. Raju
Water Resources Assessment Division, National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Hyderabad 500 037, India

Abstract


The Assi river in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, is now a small, local, ephemeral floodplain tributary of River Ganga, with a length of about 8 km and catchment area of about 22 km2. It has also turned into a filthy drain. There are evidences in the form of palaeochannels, through patterns of water bodies and settlements along them, to suggest the origin of Assi river near Allahabad flowing through a distance of about 120 km up to Varanasi to meet the Ganga. There is also the possibility that Assi started as a takeoff from River Ganga and flowed as a Yazoo stream. Through on-screen digitization from high and medium-resolution remote sensing data – BHUVAN and Google Earth, CORONA aerial photographs, IRS P6 LISS-IV, Landsat 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 – and a number of cross profiles from SRTM 30 m digital elevation model (DEM), palaeochannel of Assi has been delineated. Also, a 1 m DEM was generated for the present Assi catchment area from about 5000 DGPS points to present proof that the present Assi is a misfit in once a wider valley shaped by heavy discharge coming from a greater length of channel and a larger catchment area.

Keywords


Catchment Area, Flood Plains, Palaeochannel, Remote Sensing.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv118%2Fi4%2F630-639