River
Bhagirathi River
205 km from source to mouth · India.
IndiaFlows into Ganges
In numbers
Length
205km
Average flow
260m³/s
Basin
6,921km²
Drop
3,315m
from 3,781 m to 466 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
205 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmGangotri Glacierat 3,781 m
- 101 kmUttarkāshi17,123 people
- 165 kmTehri27,611 people
- 166 kmTehri Dam
- 205 kmGangesat 466 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 258 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 9.7 seconds. It drops from 3,781 m to 466 m, 16 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 6,921 km², about the size of PS. 568,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from December to January and from April to May. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 67% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- TehriLargest city on its banks · 27,611 people
- Dehradun Jolly Grant Airport (DED)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 37 km from the cityCar hire at IXC airport (Chandigarh)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and from October to NovemberThe best months to visit
Bhagirathi 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 April to May and from October to November.
From about 22 m³/s in the lowest month to 530 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
Bhagirathi River: the basin in numbers
7,646 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 568,000people live in the basin
- 76/km²people per km²
- 3,498maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,174mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.8°Caverage air temperature
- 21%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 15%glaciers
- 13%permafrost
- 3.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 29% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 1% Towns and cities
- 15% 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
Bhagirathi River: what you find on the way
- 4Weirs
- 1Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Bhagirathi 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.
44mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (44)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Thalay Sagar11 km away6,904m
- Meru Peak8.6 km away · prominence 460 m6,660m
- Shivling6.9 km away · prominence 850 m6,543m
- Sri Kailash14 km away6,932m
- Vasuki Parbat13 km away · prominence 520 m6,792m
- Bhagirathi Parbat I13 km away6,856m
- Bhagirathi Massif13 km away6,856m
- Bhagirathi13 km away6,856m
36 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
Bhagirathi River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
GangesIndia2,525 km12,000 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Bhilangna River, Jahnavi 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
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q170218) · 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 | 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