The Real Ganga In India and Bangladesh - The Ganga: Water Use in the Indian Subcontinent - page 8

Photograph. 2.1 Ganga
water coming out of hill cave
at kedarnath
However, the right arm continued to flow southward through West Bengal for
another 530 km, or so, before it fell into the Bay of Bengal, near the sagar island, off
Diamond Harbour in West Bengal. It flowed through the districts of Murshidabad,
Nadia, Burdwan, Hooghly, North and South 24-Parganas, Kolkata, Howrah and
Midnapur. The course from Farakka to Nabadweep is non-tidal but further down,
tides from the Bay of Bengal flow and ebb. As stated, the left arm enters Bangladesh
after flowing about 50 km into Murshidabad and travelling 220 km further south-
east across Bangladesh, it joins the Brahmaputra at Aricha, near the well-known
Goalanda Ghat in Faridpur district. Flowing further down for about 100 km, it joins
Meghna and this combined course, also known as Meghna, falls into the Bay of
Bengal, travelling some 120 km. Towards the end, the river breaks into a number
of estuaries which pass by dense forests of the Sundarbans. The Brahmaputra is
sometimes called the Yamuna in Bangladesh and many people believe that from
Goalanda downstream, the combined discharge of the Yamuna and the Ganga takes