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The streams of the inland drainage basin of Western Rajasthan are few and far
between. Most of them are of an ephemeral character. They drain towards the
individual basins of salt lakes like the Sambhar or are lost in the sand. The Luni
is the only river of this category that drains into the Rann of Kutch.
The Ganga sub-basin, a part of the Ganga- Brahmaputra-Meghna
basin, is the largest in India receiving water from an area, which is one quarter
of the total area of the country. Its boundaries are well defined by the Himalayas
in the north and Vindyayans in the south. The Ganga flows through Uttaranchal,
UP, Bihar, West Bengal in India and enters Bangladesh. It has two main
headwaters in the Himalayas - Bhagirathi and Alakananda, the former rising
from the Gangotri glacier at Gomukh and the latter from theAlkapuri glacier. The
Ganga is joined by a number of the Himalayan rivers including Yamuna, Ghagra,
Gomti, Gandak and Kosi. Among important rivers flowing north from Central
India into the Yamuna/Ganga are the Chambal, Betwa and Son.
The Brahmaputra and the Barak flowing east to west in the north-eastern region
are international rivers and have immense water resources potential.
The Godavari in the Southern Peninsula is the second largest river basin
covering 10% of the area of India. Next to it is the Krishna basin in the region,
while Mahanadi is the third largest basin. The basin of the Narmada in the
uplands of the Deccan flowing to the Arabian sea and of the Kaveri in the south
falling into the Bay of Bengal are about the same size, but have different
character.
Basin-Wise Water Resources
Notwithstanding such vast water resources, many of the country suffer from
acute water storage. In fact, 2/3rd of our country is drought prone. The uneven
distribution of rain, both in space and time, diverse geographical terrain,
extreme climatic conditions from snow clad mountains to the deserts of
Rajasthan, have all contributed to uneven distribution of water resources.
