Yamuna

The Yamuna is India’s longest tributary and, by water volume, the second-largest feeder of the Ganges. It begins at the Yamunotri Glacier, roughly 4,500 meters up on the southwestern side of the Bandarpunch peaks in Uttarakhand’s Lower Himalayas. From there, it passes through Himachal Pradesh before flowing into the Indo-Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The river travels 1,376 kilometers, draining an area of 366,223 square kilometers—about 40.2 percent of the entire Ganges Basin. It meets the Ganges at Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj, the site of the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival that occurs every twelve years.

In Hinduism, the Yamuna is deeply revered and worshipped as a goddess. She is said to be the daughter of the sun god Surya and the sister of Yama, the god of death, which also earns her the name Yami. According to popular belief, bathing in her sacred waters frees a person from the torments of death.

The river crosses Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. Along the way, it receives several tributaries, including the Tons, the Chambal (its longest tributary, which has its own large basin), the Sindh, the Betwa, and the Ken. After leaving Uttarakhand, it enters Himachal Pradesh, passes Paonta Sahib, then runs along the border between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Once it leaves Haryana, it continues until it joins the Ganges at Sangam in Prayagraj. Between itself and the Ganges, the Yamuna helps create the fertile alluvial Ganges-Yamuna Doab region in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

Nearly 57 million people rely on the Yamuna’s waters, and the river supplies more than 70 percent of Delhi’s water. Its annual flow is 97 billion cubic meters, with about 4 billion cubic meters consumed each year—96 percent of that for irrigation. At the Hathni Kund Barrage, the river’s water is split into two large canals: the Western Yamuna Canal, which goes toward Haryana, and the Eastern Yamuna Canal, which goes toward Uttar Pradesh. Downstream from that point, the Yamuna is joined by the Somb, a seasonal stream from Haryana, and by the heavily polluted Hindon River near Noida, the Najafgarh drain near Wazirabad, and various other drains. As a result, it continues largely as a trickling, sewage-laden drain until it meets the Chambal at Pachnada in Etawah District, Uttar Pradesh.

The upper 375-kilometer stretch of the Yamuna, from its source at Yamunotri to the Okhla barrage, is called the Upper Yamuna. Its water quality remains reasonably good until the Wazirabad barrage in Delhi. Below that, wastewater discharged through 15 drains between the Wazirabad and Okhla barrages makes the river severely polluted. This 22-kilometer stretch in Delhi accounts for less than 2 percent of the Yamuna’s total length but carries nearly 80 percent of the river’s overall pollution. Untreated wastewater and poor-quality water from treatment plants are the main causes of this pollution. To address the problem, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has implemented the Yamuna Action Plan since 1993 through its National River Conservation Directorate.

The present Sarsuti river, which rises in the Shivalik hills on the Himachal-Haryana border and joins the Ghaggar near Pehowa, is a palaeochannel of the Yamuna. The Yamuna shifted its course eastward due to a change in the slope of the Earth’s crust caused by plate tectonics.

The Yamuna’s source is the Yamunotri Glacier, at 6,387 meters elevation on the southwestern slopes of the Banderpooch peaks in the Mussoorie range of the Lower Himalayas, north of Haridwar in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand. From there, it flows through the mountainous Mahasu region and then enters the Indo-Gangetic plains of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The Yamunotri temple, dedicated to the goddess Yamuna, is one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines and part of the Chota Char Dham Yatra circuit. Close to the temple, along a 13-kilometer trek that follows the river’s right bank, lies Markendeya Tirtha, where the sage Markandeya is said to have written the Markandeya Purana.

The river flows south for about 200 kilometers through the Lower Himalayas and the Shivalik Hills. Morainic deposits line the steep Upper Yamuna, which features interlocking spurs, steep rock benches, gorges, and stream terraces. Large terraces formed over time can be seen in the lower course, such as those near Naugoan. An important part of the early catchment area, totaling 2,320 square kilometers, lies in Himachal Pradesh. The Tons, the Yamuna’s largest tributary, drains much of the upper catchment and carries more water than the main stream. It rises from the Hari-ki-dun valley and joins the Yamuna after Kalsi near Dehradun. The drainage system stretches between the Giri-Sutlej catchment in Himachal and the Yamuna-Bhilangna catchment in Uttarakhand, also draining the ridge of Shimla. Kalanag, at 6,387 meters, is the highest point in the Yamuna basin. Other tributaries in the region include the Giri, Rishi Ganga Kunta, Hanuman Ganga, and Bata, which drain the upper catchment.

From the upper catchment, the river descends into the Doon Valley plains at Dak Pathar near Dehradun. At the Dakpathar Barrage, water is diverted into a canal for power generation.