Subansiri: Largest Tributary of Brahmaputra River, Northeast India
Subansiri River, a major tributary of the Brahmaputra River in the northeastern part of India, has been analyzed in detail for various studies. This chapter describes the origin and course of river, geology, major land use and land cover classification, a
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1 Introduction Indian subcontinent is drained by several perennial rivers, which makes this subcontinent a fertile land for agriculture. The river systems in India play important role in the energy, industry, agriculture, and health sector. Brahmaputra River, which originates near Manasarovar in Tibet Plateau, is considered as the lifeline for the northeastern region of India. Brahmaputra River enters in the state of Arunachal Pradesh at Gelling (Upper Siang district) where it is known as Siang River. After entering in India and traveling across the Arunachal Pradesh, the river enters the fertile plains of Assam at Pasighat and joins river Ganga in Bangladesh; further, it merges in the Bay of Bengal. Several tributaries contribute to Brahmaputra River along its path. In this chapter, Subansiri River, the largest tributary of Brahmaputra River, has been discussed. Subansiri River is the right northern bank and longest tributary of Brahmaputra River (Sarkar et al. 2012). The name Subansiri originates from the fact that this river was a potential site for gold mining in the past. The name Subansiri is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Swarn’ which means ‘gold.’ Subansiri River is a
M.K. Goyal (&) Shivam A.K. Sarma Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India e-mail: [email protected] D.S. Singh Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow 226007, India © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 D.S. Singh (ed.), The Indian Rivers, Springer Hydrogeology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2984-4_36
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Fig. 1 Subansiri River map and its tributaries
trans-Himalayan river, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau in the western part of Mount Porom (Goswami et al. 1999) at an elevation of 5340 m. It is formed by joining of three small streams namely Lokong Chu (Char Chu), Chayal Chu, and Tsari Chu in Tibet. After traveling through the Himalaya, this river enters India through Miri Hills in Arunachal Pradesh. The total length of Subansiri River from origin up to the confluence to the Brahmaputra is 337 km. The 208 km of the river flows in the mountainous terrain of Himalaya and the remaining length in the Assam plain. Subansiri River joins Brahmaputra River at Jamurighat in Lakhimpur district of Assam. Total area of the river basin is about 35,771 km2 [calculated from the basin delineated from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation map], out of which 21,066 km2 area lies in Arunachal Pradesh, 4360 km2 lies in Assam, and remaining 10,345 km2 lies in Tibet region (Ray and Sarma 2011). The maximum observed discharge of the river is about 18,500 m3/s and the minimum is about 131 m3/s. Subansiri River contributes 7.92% of total discharge of the Brahmaputra River as observed near Pandu Port (Singh et al. 2004). Several small tributaries such as Ranganadi, Dikrong, Kamala, Ghagar, and Sampara contribute to the Subansiri River (Fig. 1). The districts located in Subansiri River basin are shown in Fig. 2.
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