UPSC CORE · NCERT GEOGRAPHY · ALL MAJOR EAST & WEST FLOWING RIVERS (DRAINAGE BASINS)
📚 NCERT TEXTBOOK ALIGNMENT
Class UPSC Geography — NCERT Class 11/12 + standard reference works (Bipan Chandra, R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar) — Chapter: All major east & west flowing rivers (drainage basins).
Atlas-listed length of the Ganga inside India?
2,525 km (Orient BlackSwan atlas, p.39, Major River Basins table) — India's longest river basin entirely tracked east-flowing
Catchment area of the Ganga basin (within India / total including Bangladesh)?
861,452 sq km within India; 1,186,000 sq km total Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin per atlas table
Where does the Ganga originate?
Gangotri Glacier (Gaumukh snout, ~30.99 N, 78.94 E) in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand — emerges as the Bhagirathi
At which town do Bhagirathi and Alaknanda merge to form the Ganga proper?
Devprayag, Uttarakhand (last of the Panch Prayags); below Devprayag the river is called Ganga
Which major fault parallels the Ganga's plains course on the atlas faults map?
Himalayan Front Fault (HFF) bounds the alluvial Ganga plain on the north; the Patna Fault (PF) cuts across the central plain near Patna
Why is the Ganga ranked No.4 (not No.1) in the atlas's east-flowing rivers table?
Listing is alphabetical, not by length — Baitarani, Brahmani, Brahmaputra precede it; the Ganga is still the longest Indian-territory east-flowing river at 2,525 km
Name the three Himalayan tributaries the Ganga receives from Nepal (north bank)?
Ghaghara (Karnali), Gandak, Kosi — all snow-fed, swell during monsoon; Kosi is called 'Sorrow of Bihar'
Name the major peninsular (south-bank) tributary of the Ganga that joins at Bihar–UP border?
Son (Sone) — rises near Amarkantak on the Maikal range, joins Ganga just upstream of Patna
What is the Bhagirathi–Hooghly distributary's significance?
It is the principal Indian distributary of the Ganga; carries Ganga water through Farakka Barrage (1975) to Kolkata to prevent Hooghly siltation
Compare Ganga vs Brahmaputra catchment within India (atlas figures)?
Ganga: 861,452 sq km; Brahmaputra: 194,413 sq km within India (580,000 sq km total trans-boundary) — Brahmaputra is shorter in India (916 km of 2,900 km total) but has higher discharge per km
Atlas length of Brahmaputra inside India vs total?
916 km in India; 2,900 km total (atlas, p.39) — longer than Ganga overall but India-stretch is shorter
Catchment area of Brahmaputra basin in India / total?
194,413 sq km in India; 580,000 sq km total (trans-boundary across China, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan)
This topic is part of the NCERT UPSC Core Geography syllabus, specifically the textbook NCERT Class 11/12 + standard reference works (Bipan Chandra, R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar), drawn from the chapter All major east & west flowing rivers (drainage basins). Content is cross-referenced against the latest NCERT textbook editions + standard reference works (Bipan Chandra, R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra for history; G.C. Leong, Savindra Singh for geography; the UPSC Civil Services prelims + mains syllabus).
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