The Real Ganga In India and Bangladesh - The Ganga: Water Use in the Indian Subcontinent - page 13

generated in the Bay of Bengal. The Hooghly's first tributary is the Churni from left
near Chakdaha in Nadia district, which offtakes from the Padma in Bangladesh and
branches from Mathabhanga. The Damodar which originates in the Chhotonagpur
Hills in Jharkhand and flows through parts of Bihar and West Bengal joins the
Hooghly from right near Uluberia in Howrah. It is now shackled by a number of
dams across it, built by the Damodar Valley Corporation and remains virtually stag-
nant, except in rainy months. Below its outfall, the Rupnarayan joins the Hooghly
from right and deflects the combined discharge toward left up to Diamond Harbour
in south 24-Parganas. It carries the combined discharge of the Damodar (partly)
and the Darakeswar, the Silavati and the Kangsavati and joins the Hooghly near
Tamluk (the famous Tamralipta port in ancient India) in East Midnapur district. The
dams across the Damodar have considerably tamed the turbulent river, reducing its
reservoir capacity in monsoon months.
From Diamond Harbour the Hooghly flows south up to its journey to its con-
fluence in the Bay of Bengal, near the sagar Island. On this course, the first river
to join it from the right is the Haldi on whose bank Haldia port has come up. The
river carries the discharges of the Keleghai and the lower segment of the Kangsavati
and flows into the Hooghly through a fairly wide estuary at Sondia near Sutahata in
East Midnapur district. Further down, Rasulpur, the last tributary of the Ganga, joins
it from right, near Hijli in Midnapur. It practically discharges at the sea-face below
which the Bay of Bengal starts. The total length of the Ganga in India from its origin
at Gomukh to its confluence at Sagar Island is about 2,645 km, or 1,660 miles.
The name Padda or Padma generally applies to the Ganga as far up as the point
where the Ganga flows in two streams near Jangipur. One branch, the Bhagirathi
flows south through West Bengal and the other into Bangladesh, carrying the
monsoon and non-monsoon flows through Murshidabad and Nadia districts. In fact,
the river has made a natural division of the two countries, which were one before
1947 except for six years - from 1905 to 1911 - when it was bifurcated by the
British Raj in Kolkata. Its right bank is now India and the left bank is Bangladesh
for some 50 km. The right branch begins in Nadia district in India (West Bengal) and
the left branch in Rajshahi district of Bangladesh where its first tributary from left
is the Mahananda which joins it near Nawabganj in Rajshahi. As Harun Er Rashid
said in 1979:
It is hydrologically more correct to call the river the Ganga down to its confluence with the
Yamuna ... . The river between Aricha and Sureswar is, therefore, best called the Padma, for
it has every right to be regarded as a separate river. The Padma is 120 kilometres long and
4-5 kilometres wide. The very important Goalanda-Chandpur steamer route is mostly on
this river.
About 100 km south of Goalanda, the Meghna joins the Padma and its direction
changes from south-east to south up to its outfall into the sea (Bay of Bengal). The
lower Meghna, the largest river in Bangladesh, carries the discharges of the Padma
and the upper Meghna and is joined by the Dhaleswari from the left. All the three
rivers are very large and at their confluence are about 15 km wide. The Padma-
Meghna estuary starts from the confluence and the southward journey of the river