The Son, A Vindhyan River
The Son River originates in the Amarkantak hills of Maikal range at an elevation of ~600 m in Madhya Pradesh and then flows through the north of Kaimur plateau of Vindhya ranges. This river is an important tributary of the Ganga River, and after flowing t
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1 Introduction In the central part of India, the Son River is mainly flowing through the Vindhya ranges and is a major southern (right bank) tributary of the Ganga River (Fig. 1). The total length of the river is 784 km, out of which about 500 km lies in Madhya Pradesh, 82 km in Uttar Pradesh and the remaining 202 km lies in Jharkhand and Bihar (Rao 1975; India WRIS Project Team 2014). The total catchment area of the basin is 71,259 km2 (Rao 1975). The Son River originates in the Amarkantak hills of Maikal range at an elevation of *600 m in Madhya Pradesh, and it merges with the Ganga River 30 km upstream of Patna in the state of Bihar. It flows north– northwest through Madhya Pradesh and turns eastward after encountering the southwest–northeast running Kaimur range of the Vindhyan Supergroup. The river provides good quality water for irrigation and drinking purposes, and among important resources on the river and its tributaries are many dams, reservoirs and hydropower generation plants serving in the region for irrigation and electricity generation.
C. Maharana J.K. Tripathi (&) School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India e-mail: [email protected] © 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_15
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C. Maharana and J.K. Tripathi
Fig. 1 Drainage basin and geology of the of Son River (after Maharana et al. 2015)
2 Tributaries of the Son River The major tributaries of the Son River are Rihand, North Koel, Gopad, Banas and Kanhar rivers. All of them emerges in the highlands and flow in a northward direction to join the Son River. Among these, the Rihand is the longest and the principal tributary of the Son River. The Rihand River flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. The river rises from Matiranga hills, in the region south-west of the Mainpat plateau. It flows towards the north, roughly through the central part of Surguja district, for 160 km with a catchment of 17,110 km2 (Rao 1975). The Rihand and its tributaries form a fertile plain in the central part stretching from around Ambikapur to Lakhanpur and Pratappur. Then, it flows north into Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh before joining the Son River. Its main tributaries are the Mahan, Morana (Morni), Geur, Gagar, Gobri, Piparkachar, Ramdia and Galphulla. Many seasonal and perennial rivers join the Rihand reservoir (Govind Ballabh Sagar) such as the Kanchan, Mayar and Azir. The North Koel River emerges from the Ranchi plateau and enters Palamau division, below Netarhat near Rud in Jharkhand. From its source to its confluence with the Son River its length is about 260 km and since it drains a catchment area of at least 10,360 km2 (Rao 1975), it naturally contributes a large supply of water to the Son River during the rainy season. The North Koel, along with its tributaries, meanders through the northern part of Betla National Park. The principal tributaries are the Auranga, Amanat and Burha
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