Land and The People

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE

  • The geological regions broadly follow the physical features and may be grouped ‘into three regions: the Himalayas and their associated group of mountains, the Indo—Ganga Plain and the Peninsular Shield.
  • The Himalayan mountain belt to the north and the Naga—Lushai mountain in the east, are the regions of mountain building movement. Most of this area, now presenting some of the most magnificent mountain scenery in the world, was under marine conditions about 60 crore years ago.
  • In a series of mountain- building movements commencing about 7 crore years ago, the sediments and the basement rocks rose to great heights.
  • The weathering and erosive elements worked on these to produce the relief seen today.
  • The Indo-Ganga plains are a great alluvial tract that separates the Himalayas in the north from the Peninsula in the south.
  • The Peninsula is a region of relative stability and occasional seismic disturbances. Highly metamorphosed rocks of the earliest periods, dating back as far as 380 crore years, occur in this area; the rest being covered by the Gondwana formations, lava flows belonging to the Deccan Trap formation and younger sediments.

RIVER SYSTEMS

  • The river systems of India can be classified into four groups, (i) Himalayan rivers, (ii) Deccan rivers, (iii) Coastal rivers, and (iv) Rivers of the inland drainage basin.
  • The Himalayan rivers are formed by melting snow and glaciers and therefore, continuously flow throughout the year. During the monsoon months, Himalayas receive very heavy rainfall and rivers swell, causing frequent floods.
  • The Deccan rivers on the other hand are rainfed and therefore fluctuate in volume. Many of these are non-perennial.
  • The Coastal streams, especially on the west coast are short in length and have limited catchment areas. Most of them are non-perennial.
  • The streams of inland drainage basin of western Rajasthan are few and far apart. Most of them are of an ephemeral
  • The main Himalayan river systems are those of the Indus and the Ganga- Brahmaputra—Meghna system.
  • The Indus, which is one of the great rivers of the world, rises near Mansarovar in Tibet and flows through India and thereafter through Pakistan and finally falls into the Arabian sea near Karachi. It’s important tributaries flowing in Indian territory are the Sutlej (originating in Tibet), the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab and the jhelum.
  • The Ganga-Brahinaputra-Meghna is another important system of which the principal sub-basins are those of Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, which join at Dev Prayag to form the Ganga. It traverses through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal states.
  • Below Rajmahal hills, the Bhagirathi, which used to be the main course in the past, takes off, while the Padma continues eastward and enters Bangladesh.
  • The Yamuna, Ramganga, Ghaghra, Gandak, Kosi, Mahananda and Sone are the important tributaries of the Ganga.
  • Rivers Chambal and Betwa are the important sub—tributaries, which join Yamuna before it meets the Ganga.
  • The Padma and the Brahmaputra join at Bangladesh and continue to flow as the Padma or Ganga.
  • The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet, where it is known as Tsangpo and runs a long distance till it crosses over into India in Arunachal Pradesh under the name of
  • Near Passighat, the Debang and Lohit join the river Brahrnaputra and the combined river runs all along the Assam valley. It crosses into Bangladesh downstream of
  • The principal tributaries of Brahmaputra in India are the Subansiri, Iia Bhareli, Dhansiri, Puthimari, Pagladiya and the Manas.
  • The Brahmaputra in Bangladesh fed by Teesta, etc. finally falls into Ganga.
  • The Barak river, the head stream of Meghna, rises in the hills in Manipur. The important tributaries of the river are Makku, Trang, Tuivai, Iiri, Sonai, Rukni, Katakhal, Dhaleswari, Langachini, Maduva and
  • Barak continues in Bangladesh till the combined Ganga—Brahmaputra join it near Bhairab Bazar.
  • In the Deccan region, most of the major river systems flowing generally in east direction fall into Bay of Bengal. The major east flowing rivers are Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery and
  • Narmada and Tapti are major West flowing rivers.
  • The Godavari in the southern Peninsula has the second largest river basin covering 10% of the area of India.
  • Next to it is the Krishna basin in the region and the Mahanadi is another large basin of the region.
  • 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, though with different character and shape.
  • There are numerous coastal rivers, which are comparatively small. While only handful of such rivers drains into the sea near the delta of east coast, there are as many as 600 such rivers on the west coast.
  • A few rivers in Rajasthan do not drain into the sea. They drain into salt lakes and get lost in sand with no outlet to sea. Besides these, there are the Desert Rivers which flow for some distance and are lost in the desert. These are Luni, Machhu, Rupen, Saraswati, Banas, Ghaggar and others.
  • The entire country has been divided into 20 river basins / group of river basins comprising 12 major basins and 8 composite river basins.
  • The twelve major river basins are: (I) Indus, (2) Ganga-l3rahmaputra—Meghna, (3) Godavari, (4) Krishna, (5) Cauvery, (6) Mahanadi, (7) Pennar, (8) Brahmani – Baitarani, (9) Sabarmati, (10) Mahi, (11) Narmada and (12) Tapti. Each of these basins has a drainage area exceeding 20,000 sq. km.
  • The eight composite river basins combining suitably together all the other remaining medium (drainage area of 2,000 to 20,000 sq.km) and small river systems (drainage area less than 2000 sq.km) for the purpose of planning and management are : (1) Subarnarekha-combining Subarnarekha and other small rivers between Subarnarekha and Baitarani; (2) East flowing rivers between Mahanadi and Pennar; (3) East flowing rivers between Pennar and Kanyakumari; (4) Area of Inland Drainage in Rajasthan Desert; (5) West flowing rivers of Kutch and Saurashtra including Luni; (6) West flowing rivers from Tapi to Tadri; (7) West flowing rivers from Tadri to Kanyakumari and (8) Minor rivers draining into Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh.
UPSC Prelims 2025 Notes