Difference between Himalayan and Peninsular River System
Table of Contents
Difference between Himalayan and Peninsular River System
The following table illustrates the major differences between Himalayan and the Peninsular River system –
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Characteristics |
Himalayan River |
Peninsular River |
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1. |
Name |
These rivers originate from the lofty Himalayan ranges and are named as the Himalayan rivers. |
These rivers originate in the Peninsular Plateau and are named as Peninsular rivers. |
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2. |
Place of origin |
Himalayan mountains (covered with glaciers). |
Peninsular plateau and central highland. |
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3. |
Nature of flow |
Perennial; receive water from glacier andrainfall. |
Seasonal; dependent on monsoon rainfall. |
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4.
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Type of drainage |
Antecedent and consequent leading to dendritic pattern in plains. |
Super imposed, rejuvenated resulting in trellis, radial, and rectangular patterns. |
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5. |
Nature of river |
Long course, flowing through the rugged mountains experiencing head ward erosion and river capturing; In plains, meandering and shifting off course. |
Smaller, fixed course with well-adjusted valleys. |
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6. |
Stage |
These rivers flow across the young fold mountains and are still in a youthful stage. |
These rivers have been flowing in one of the oldest plateaus of the world and have reached maturity. |
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7. |
Age of the river |
Young and youthful, active and deepening in the valleys |
Old rivers with graded profile, and have almost reached their base levels. |
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8.
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Catchment area |
Very large basin. These rivers have large basins and catchment areas. The total basin area of the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra is 11.78, 8.61 and 5.8 lakh square kilometres respectively. |
Relatively smaller basin. These rivers have small basins and catchment areas. The Godavari has the largest basin area of 3.12 lakh square kilometres only which is less than one-third the basin area of the Indus. |
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9.
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Water Flow
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The Himalayan rivers are perennial in nature, i.e., water flows throughout the year in these rivers. These rivers receive water both from the monsoons and snow-melt. The perennial nature of these rivers makes them useful for irrigation. |
The Peninsular rivers receive water only from rainfall and water flows in these rivers in rainy season only. Therefore, these rivers are seasonal or non-perennial. As such these rivers are much less useful for irrigation. |
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10. |
Valleys |
The Himalayan rivers flow through deep V – shaped valleys called gorges. These gorges have been carved out by down cutting carried on side by side with the uplift of the Himalayas. |
The Peninsular rivers flow in comparatively shallow valleys. These are more or less completely graded valleys. The rivers have little erosional activity to perform. |
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11. |
Meanders |
The upper reaches of the Himalayan rivers are highly tortuous. When they enter the plains, there is a sudden reduction in the speed of flow of water. Under these circumstances these rivers form meanders and often shift their beds. |
The hard rock surface and non-alluvial character of the plateau permits little scope for the formation of meanders. As such, the rivers of the Peninsular Plateau follow more or less straight courses. |
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12. |
Deltas and Estuaries |
The Himalayan rivers form big deltas at their mouths. The Ganga-Brahmaputra delta is the largest in the world. |
Some of the Peninsular rivers, such as the Narmada and the Tapi form estuaries. Other rivers such as the Mahanadi, the Godavari, the Krishna and the Cauvery form deltas. Several small streams originating from the Western Ghats and flowing towards the west enter the Arabian Sea without forming any delta. |
So, this was the Difference between Himalayan and Peninsular River System, now lets see the difference between East and west peninsular rivers.
Difference between West Flowing Peninsular Rivers and East Flowing Peninsular Rivers
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East Flowing Peninsular River |
West Flowing Peninsular River |
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1. |
These rivers do not flow in valley. |
These rivers flows into Rift valley. |
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2. |
These rivers drain in bay of Bengal. |
These rivers drain in Arabian sea. |
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3. |
These rivers make deltas in their mouth. |
These rivers enter the sea through estuaries. |
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4. |
These rivers have more no. of tributaries. |
These rivers do not have many tributaries. |
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5. |
Eg – Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri, Mahanadi etc. |
Eg – Tapi, Narmada, Sabarmati etc. |
River Regime
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- River regime is the seasonal fluctuation in the volume of the water in a river.
- The variability in river’s discharge throughout the course of a year in response to precipitation, temperature, evapo-transpiration, and drainage basin characteristics or, in simple words, the pattern of seasonal flow of water in a river is known as River Regime.
- The difference in the drainage patterns between Himalayan and Peninsular River can be due to the climatic factors.
- The Himalayan Rivers are perennial because their regime depend upon the supply of water from snow melting as well as rainfall. Hence the regime of the Himalayan River are both monsoonal as well as glacial.
- Whereas, the peninsular rivers receives water from rainfall only, thus, their regime is monsoonal only.
- There are striking differences between Himalayan river and peninsular rivers river regimes as listed below –
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- Origin/Source: The Himalayan River are fed by both glaciers and rainfall and are thus perennial in nature. The peninsular rivers are fed by rainfall only and thus rain dependent.
- Catchment Area and Max. Flow: Large catchment areas of Himalayan River ensure the maximum flow during the rainy seasons and their maximum flow is far greater than that of the peninsular rivers.
- Variations: Owning to the huge variations in the rainfall in the peninsular plateau, the regimes of different peninsular rivers vary widely whereas almost all Himalayan river maintain a sizeable flow.
- Gradual increase/decrease in flow: Ganga (Himalayan River) has a minimum flow during Jan-June and max. Flow during Aug/Sept. and gradual steady fall afterwards, whereas Narmada (peninsular river) has very low flow from Jan-July and a sharp rise in August and again a sudden fall in October.
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Base Level of Erosion and River Profile
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- It is the lowest level to which down cutting of river is possible often referred to as mouth of the river.
- The ultimate base level for any stream is the water body into which it flows – sea, lake, reservoir, dam etc.
- For large rivers, sea level is usually the base level but the large river or lake is likewise the base level for the tributary stream.
- Under normal circumstances, the goal of the river is to do work of erosion initially up to its local and then permanent base level.
- River Profile – It refers to cross section of the river from its source to mouth representing the height of the river at various points. The peninsular river have almost reached their base level of erosion.
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River Rejuvenation
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- River rejuvenation refers to a significant enhancement in the erosive power of the river, it can happens because of the following reasons –
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- Fall in sea level (lowering of base level of erosion)
- dynamic upliftment of the land
- For a given load if there is considerable increase in volume of water.
- For a given volume of water if there is a considerable decrease in the load.
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- River rejuvenation refers to a significant enhancement in the erosive power of the river, it can happens because of the following reasons –
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Usability of Rivers
- Irrigation
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- Largest amount of water is used for irrigation.
- Due to the uneven topography and seasonal flow of the river, all this amount is not usable.
- About 30% of the annual flow of river is used for Irrigation.
- Domestic Uses
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- Besides irrigation, the water from the river are also used for household and domestic purposes also.
- Hydroelectricity Development
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- The Himalayas, Vindhyas, Satpura, Aravalli, Maikal, Chhotanagpur plateau, Meghalaya plateau, Purvanchal, Western and the Eastern Ghats offer possibilities of large scale water power development.
- The country has exploitable power generation potential of about 41 million KW at 60% load factor from these rivers.
- Navigation
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- The Ganga and the Brahmaputra in the north and north-eastern part of the country, the Mahanadi in Odisha, the Godavari and the Krishna in Andhra and Telangana the Narmada and the Tapi in Gujarat, and the lakes and tidal creeks in coastal states possess some of the important and useful waterways of the country.
- Withdrawal of large quantities of water for irrigation resulted in dwindling flow of many rivers.
- The most important navigable risers are the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the Mahanadi. The Godavari, the Krishna, the Narmada and the Tapi are navigable near their mouths only.
So, this was all about Difference between Himalayan and Peninsular River System and River regime. With this post the Drainage System of India part of Indian Geography has been completed.
From the next post (Click here), we will start a new topic of Climatic Condition of India.
