this helps students of IX CBSE to visualise the picturesqueness the Ganga river system from its source to its delta and the role of each individual to preserve the holy river
2. The Ganges
Length : Over 2500 km
Drainage : Dendritic pattern
Ambala : Water divide between
Indus and Ganga
Length of plains: 1800 km
Fall in slope : Hardly 300 metres,
i.e.one metre for every
6 km therefore ,the river
develops large meanders
3. River Indus
Am
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la
wa
ter
div
Ri ide
ve
rG
an
ga
5. The Ganges river is one of
the largest and by far the
most important rivers in India.
She has been a symbol of
India’s age long culture and
civilization, ever changing,
ever flowing, and yet ever the
same Ganga.
6. The river Ganges is officially
and popularly known by it’s
hindu name,Ganga. The
Ganges is 1560 miles long
and flows through China,
India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
The river flows through 29
cities and about 48 towns.
11. Hindus, who constitute the
vast majority of India's
population, consider the
Ganges a sacred river:
Ganga (or Ganges) is the
daughter of the mountain
god, Himavan or Himalaya.
12. Every day people bathe in
the sacred water believing
that it will wash away their
sins. It is believed that even a
few drops on their tongue will
clean their bodies. To bathe
in the Ganga is a lifelong
ambition for Hindus.
13. It is believed that any water
that mixes with the smallest
amount of Ganges river
becomes holy with healing
powers. Hindus also cast the
ashes of their dead in the
river in the belief that this will
guide the souls of the
deceased to paradise.
14.
15. The Ganges has been used
for irrigation since ancient
times, the use of irrigation
canals has increased the
production of cash crops like
sugarcane, cotton and
oilseeds.
16. Floods of the Ganges have
enriched thethe Ganges have
Floods of soil. This makes
the Ganges Valley amakes the
enriched the soil. This great
Ganges Valley a great agricultural
agricultural region in India.
region in India.
Fishing also is an important
use of the Ganges. The
Ganges is also a burial
ground for the dead.
17.
18.
19. Drinking- Many cities get their
drinking water from the
Ganges, which is a large
problem because the water is
very polluted in some parts of
the Ganges.
20. Energy-Only 20% of the
estimated capacity of dams
has been developed. At the
upper part of the Ganges
River, electricity is generated
at the waterfalls of the
Ganges River.
34. The five river confluences of
Alakananda are Vishnu Prayag,
Nandaprayag, Karnaprayag,
Rudraprayag and Devaprayag… All
five along the path of the
Alakananda river, that goes on
assimilating other rivers… Till it
reaches Devaprayag, where
Alakandanda meets Bhagirathi and
thereon, is known as Ganga.
35. It is the confluence of the
Dhauliganga with the Alaknanda.
Vishnu Prayag
Vishnu Prayag,
36. It is the confluence of the Dhauliganga with the Alaknanda.
Vishnu Prayag,
53. River Alakananda & River Bagirathi meet at the river
confluence Of Devaprayag and from here it flows as
River Ganga.
54.
55. The headwaters of the
Ganga called the ‘Bhagirathi’
is fed by the Gangotri Glacier
and joined by the Alaknanda
at Devaprayag in
Uttaranchal. At Haridwar the
Ganga emerges from the
mountains on to the plains.
60. Gnaga leaves the mountains and joins its tributaries at
Haridwar
61.
62. Gnaga leaves the mountains and joins its tributaries at
Haridwar
63. The Ganga is joined by many
tributaries from the
Himalayas, a few of them
being major rivers
such as the Yamuna, the
Ghaghara, the Ghandak and
the Kosi. The river Yamuna
rises from the Yamunotri
Glacier in the Himalayas.
70. A scene carved into rocks
near Mamallapuram, India,
depicts the descent of the
sacred river Ganges from the
Himalayas. Following a
natural crack in the rock, the
carving is 6 m (20 ft) high.
71. It depicts gods, celestial
beings, and animals gathered
along the river’s (Ganges)
path. The carvings date from
the 7th century AD. The
monuments of
Mamallapuram are excellent
specimen of Dravidian temple
architecture and Pallava art.
73. The picture shows River
Ganges as visualised by
Bernini. It symbolises four of
the world’s great rivers (the
Ganges, the Nile, the Danube
and the Plata), representing
the four continents known at
the time.
78. Varanasi is probably one of
the most ancient living cities
in India. Varanasi is closely
associated with Ganges. The
temple town has many
temples along the banks of
the Ganges.
79.
80. Varanasi is situated on the
crescent shaped left bank of
the holy Ganga, it is one of
the ancient seats of learning
in India, it is said to be
respectively a compound of
the names of two streams,
the Varuna and the Assi,
which still flow.
81. Till May 24, 1956, Varanasi
was known by the name
Banarus. From time
immemorial Varanasi, has
been a great religious center
for Hindus and one of their
most sacred places of
pilgrimage, visited by millions
each year.
100. Meghna river is one of the
major rivers in Bangladesh,
specially famous for it’s great
estaury that discharges the
flow of Ganga-Padma,
Brahmaputra-Jamuna and
the Meghna itself. It is a
flood-prone river.
101. The downstream of Surma
river from Ajmiriganj is often
referred to as the Meghna.
The Meghna has 2 distinct
parts: the Upper Meghna and
the Lower Meghna.
102. The Upper Meghna from
Kuliarchar to Shatnol is a
comparatively small river.
The Lower Meghna below
Shatnol is one of the largest
rivers in the world because of
its wide estuary mouth. The
Lower Meghna is at times
treated as a separate river.
103. There are two major dams on
the Ganga. One at Haridwar
diverts much of the
Himalayan snowmelt into the
Upper Ganges Canal, built by
the British in 1854 to irrigate
the surrounding land.
104. The other dam is a serious
hydroelectric affair at
Farakka, close to the point
where the main flow of the
river enters Bangladesh, and
the tributary Hooghly (also
known as Bhagirathi)
continues in West Bengal
past Calcutta.
107. The Sunderbans delta is the
largest mangrove forest in
the world. It lies at the mouth
of the Ganges and is spread
across areas of Bangladesh
and West Bengal, India. It is
largely a tangled swampland.
108. The silt deposits of the delta
covers an area of 23000 sq
miles. The river courses in the
delta are broad and active,
carrying a vast amount of
water. The rains from June to
October cause most of the
Bangladeshi delta region to
flood.
109. On the seaward side of the
delta are swamplands and
tidal forests called
Sunderbans. The delta
experiences strong cyclonic
storms before and after the
monsoon season, which can
be devastating.
111. The Ganges Fan is a large
submarine accumulation of
sediment at the northern end
of the Bay of Bengal, and
stretches from India, through
Bangladesh, to Myanmar
from west to east, and past
Sri Lanka to the south.
112. The sediment is carried
through a series of
underwater canyons, some of
which are more than 1500
miles (2,414km) in length.
(the Ganges Fan is not to be
confused with the Ganges
Delta.)
114. Ganges Canal was dug from
Haridwar to Kanpur in later
half of 19th century and a
very wide network of small
tributary canals were
constructed from the main
canal to act as source of
irrigation in the fertile plains
of Western Uttar Pradesh .
115.
116. This canal is still supplying
water to thousands of villages
in western Uttar Pradesh and
water of Ganga, flowing in
this canal, is in true sense the
life line of western Uttar
Pradesh an area which
played a central role in the
Green revolution of India.
118. Pollution of the Ganges has
become so serious that
bathing in and drinking it’s
water has become very
dangerous. The major
polluting industry along the
Ganges is the leather
industry especially near
Kanpur.
119. In Kanpur, hides of goats,
horses and cows are bought
in for tanning. The large
amount of water used in this
process, mixed in with
chemicals are dumped into
the Ganges.
120.
121. A recent study has proved
that the amount of sewage
flowing in Ganges has
doubled since 1985. Nearly 1
billion liters of mostly
untreated raw sewage that
enters the sewage everyday.
122.
123. Also, inadequate cremation
procedures contributes to a
large number of partially
burnt or unburnt corpses
floating down the Ganga, not
to mention livestock corpses.
124.
125.
126. There has been many clean
up acts, such as GAP
(Ganges Action Plan) and the
Oswald Plan. The GAP act
began in 1985.
127. The GAP act was meant to
clean up India’s most
important river, but after
twelve years of work and
$300 million funding, the
GAP has achieved very few
of it’s objectives.
128. The Oswald plan was to
release thousands of turtles,
which were supposed to eat
the rotting corpses floating in
the water. Some people
thought that the turtles would
leave the area.
129. In November 1991 a survey
that was conducted showed
that 60% of the turtles
remained in Varanasi area
and were seen nibbling on
human flesh.
130. Hopefully, in the future the
river Ganges will be as clean
as the Hindu pilgrimages
believe it to be. It maybe a
while but with more
coordinated effort the waters
of the Ganges will be clean.
147. The Ganga will flow clean and free from pollution
by 2020, ...???
148. The Ganges River, considered to be sacred in
India is getting a $1 billion clean up loan from
the World Bank.
The Ganges River (or Ganga as it also called)
is 2500 km long and has incredibley high
pollution, everything from industrial
chemicals to raw sewage. The $1billion World
Bank Ganga River Loan will support the clean
up efforts launched by the Indian government.
Clean up efforts that inlcude building water
treatment plants, fixing dams and other water
quality improvement measures.
149. “ Environmentalists say
the river supports over
400 million people, and
if the unabated pollution
is not controlled, it will
be the end of communities
150. “Let each one of us be
responsible and ensure
we are not contributors
to pollution of our
environment.”