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Is Ganga the Longest River in the Ganga Basin, India?


Affiliations
1 Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, Chhatra Marg, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
 

The length of the main trunk in a river basin is an important morphometric parameter and it depends on the size of the drainage basin. The Ganga River Basin is one of the largest basins in the world with the Ganga River considered to be the main stem. Variable lengths of this river in the literature motivated us to study its exact length and also to test whether geomorphically it is the longest river in the basin. The results show that the maximum river length of 2758 km is attained when source is considered at the headstream of the Tons River. This length is more than any of the traditional lengths of the Ganga River in the literature. We propose to call the longest segment of the river in Ganga Basin as the Himalayan Foreland River.

Keywords

Ganga Basin, Drainage Network, Headwater, River Length, Source Stream.
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  • Is Ganga the Longest River in the Ganga Basin, India?

Abstract Views: 505  |  PDF Views: 130

Authors

Neelam Verma
Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, Chhatra Marg, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
Rahul Devrani
Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, Chhatra Marg, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
Vimal Singh
Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, Chhatra Marg, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India

Abstract


The length of the main trunk in a river basin is an important morphometric parameter and it depends on the size of the drainage basin. The Ganga River Basin is one of the largest basins in the world with the Ganga River considered to be the main stem. Variable lengths of this river in the literature motivated us to study its exact length and also to test whether geomorphically it is the longest river in the basin. The results show that the maximum river length of 2758 km is attained when source is considered at the headstream of the Tons River. This length is more than any of the traditional lengths of the Ganga River in the literature. We propose to call the longest segment of the river in Ganga Basin as the Himalayan Foreland River.

Keywords


Ganga Basin, Drainage Network, Headwater, River Length, Source Stream.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv107%2Fi12%2F2018-2022