River
Alaknanda River
190 km from source to mouth · India.
IndiaFlows into Ganges
In numbers
Length
190km
Average flow
320m³/s
Basin
10,882km²
Drop
3,368m
from 3,846 m to 478 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
190 km of river and 6 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,846 m
- 10 kmVasudhara Falls
- 41 kmJoshīmath13,865 people
- 85 kmNandakinitributary
- 100 kmPindar Rivertributary
- 131 kmMandakini Rivertributary
- 160 kmSrīnagar20,216 people
- 190 kmGangesat 478 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Uttarakhand, India
At the mouth it carries 322 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 7.8 seconds. It drops from 3,846 m to 478 m, 18 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 10,882 km², about the size of XK. 804,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to January and from April to May. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- SrīnagarLargest city on its banks · 20,216 people
- Dehradun Jolly Grant Airport (DED)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 58 km from the cityCar hire at IXC airport (Chandigarh)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Alaknanda River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from December to January and from April to May. Best months to visit: from March to May and from October to November.
From about 39 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,100 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Alaknanda River: the basin in numbers
11,117 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 804,000people live in the basin
- 74/km²people per km²
- 3,363maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,204mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 6.6°Caverage air temperature
- 25%protected areas
- 12%glaciers
- 19%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 32% Forest
- 7% Cropland
- 1% Towns and cities
- 12% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Alaknanda River: what you find on the way
- 7WaterfallsVasudhara waterfall, Jogifall and 5 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Alaknanda River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
8mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Vasudhara Fallskm 10
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (8)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Chaukhamba12 km away · prominence 1,593 m7,138m
- Nilkantha5.5 km away · prominence 1,200 m6,596m
- Balakun6.9 km away · prominence 620 m6,471m
- Avalanche Peak I7.6 km away6,196m
- Nar Parvat14 km away5,855m
- Nar Parbat14 km away
- Dhaula Number Four SP14 km away
- Dhaula Number Three SP13 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Alaknanda River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
GangesIndia2,525 km12,000 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Mandakini River, Dhauliganga River, Nandakini, Pindar River, Saraswati River
In the same basin
India2,900 km19,500 m³/sYamunaIndia1,376 km3,500 m³/sPadma River
Bangladesh120 km32,000 m³/sGandaki RiverIndia630 km1,800 m³/sChambal RiverIndia960 km600 m³/sJamuna RiverBangladesh245 km20,100 m³/sGhaghara RiverIndia1,080 km3,300 m³/sTeesta RiverBangladesh470 km1,300 m³/sGomti RiverIndia900 km230 m³/sKosi RiverIndia729 km2,300 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
India205 km260 m³/s0 km awayBeas RiverIndia470 km1,400 m³/s367 km awayRamgangaIndia600 km940 m³/s356 km awayChambal RiverIndia960 km600 m³/s411 km awaySharda RiverIndia350 km2,300 m³/s415 km awayGhaggar-Hakra riverIndia494 km38 m³/s452 km awayBetwa RiverIndia590 km500 m³/s496 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1419768) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit