The Brahmaputra

The Brahmaputra, itself one of the longest and biggest rivers and constituting one of the largest river systems in the world with its dense network of tributaries, originates at the great glacier of Chema-Yung-Dung at an altitude of 5300m about 63 km south east of the Mansorovar lakes in the Kailash range of the Himalayas in south-west Tibet. From its origin it flows eastward through the cold dry plateau of Tibet (China) with the name Tsangpo and enters the Indian territory at Arunachal Pradesh whence it is called the Siang or the Dehang. After debouching at the Assam plains the Siang meets with two other powerful rivers flowing from the northeastern and eastern parts of the region called the Debang and the Lohit, becomes huge in size and flow and flows placidly westward in a multiple braided channel the combined course being known as the Brahmaputra from this confluence onwards throughout the Assam valley. The river enters Bangladesh to be known their as the Jamuna and meets subsequently with other major rivers like the Tista, the Ganges and the Meghna each time changing its name in popular parlance from the Jamuna to the Padma to the Meghna and finally outfalls in to the Bay of Bengal. During the long course from its source in the high Himalayas to its sink at the Meghna delta, the Brahmaputra traverses a total length of 2830 km- the first 1625 Km in Tibet (China), the next 918 Km in India and the remaining 337 Km in Bangladesh. With its total catchment area (5,80,000 km) spreads across five different country’s in South Asia viz. China, India, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, Brahmaputra is a truly international river immense socio-economic, environmental and strategic significance. The Brahmaputra basin accounts for 68.42%(1,74,528 km2) of the total geographical area of north east India(2,55,083 km2).