Ganga

The Ganges (Ganga) River runs through northern India and is sacred to those who
follow Hinduism. The 2704 km river emerges from western Himalayas and flows
through India and Bangladesh. The Ganges has been lifeline to millions of people
living in the basin and depend on it for their daily needs. The river and it
surrounding area watershed supports one of the most fertile land and one of the
most densely populated region on the Earth. This river system is the largest in India
having a number of perennial and non-perennial rivers originating in the Himalayas
in the north and the Peninsula in the south.
The river has a length of 2,525 km. It is shared by Uttarakhand (110 km) and Uttar
Pradesh (1,450 km), Bihar (445 km) and West Bengal (520 km).

The origin of the river is dated back to 75 million years ago when the Gondwana
land, a supercontinent began to drift slowly towards the Eurasian plate, the process
lasted around 50 million years. This collision led to the formation of the Himalayan
mountain range and the trove between the mountain range and the former seabed was gradually filled by sediments. This region was
called the Indo-Gangetic plains. The Ganges basin ranges from the Himalaya and the Transhimalaya in the north, to the northern slopes
of the Vindhya range in the south, from the eastern slopes of the Aravalli in the west to the Chota Nagpur plateau and
the Sunderbans delta in the east. A significant portion of the discharge from the Ganges comes from the Himalayan mountain system in
the form of rainfall. Within the Himalaya, the Ganges basin spreads almost 1,200 km.

Course

The Himalayan range is home to several glaciers that are key source of water for the river. At the origin, the
river Ganges is referred to as Bhagirathi. As the river flows down, it merges with the Alakananda river which
forms the upper phase of the river. The headwaters of the Alakananda are formed by snow melt from peaks
such as Nanda Devi, Trisul, and Kamet. The Bhagirathi rises at the foot of Gangotri Glacier, at Gomukh. The
Ganges flows south and east from the Himalayas, forming a canyon as it leaves the mountain.
On the banks of the Alakananda is the ancient Himalayan pilgrimage town of Badrinath. While moving down
through Rishikesh, the river descend down to the fertile plains at Haridwar, this place is also referred to as
Gangadwara. The melting water from the Himalayas, as well as water from tributaries and rainfall, all feed
the sacred river.

As the Ganges River flows farther downstream, it changes its direction several times
and is joined by many other tributary rivers such as the Ramganga, Tamsa, and
Gandaki Rivers, to name a few. After entering Uttar Pradesh, the river reaches
Prayagraj where the Kumbh Mela takes place. This is the place where the three river
Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati merges into one. Then after it passes through
Varanasi, it enter Bihar and then Jharkhand where it flows along the north eastern
border.

Upon entering Bengal, the Ganga becomes a distributary and the main river is known as Padma. From Padma,
one branch flows into the mainland Bangladesh and the other into Bhagirathi-Hoogly river. Padma is then
joined by Jamuna River, the largest distributary of Brahmaputra Delta and going further down stream Padma
is joined by another river called Meghna River.
The Ganges delta is triangular and considered to be an accurate delta. Covering more than 105000km2, it lies
mostly in Bangladesh. Most of the delta is composed of alluvial soils made up by small sediment particles that
finally settle down as river currents slow down in the estuary and evetually empties into the sea.