River
Kuri Chhu
257 km from source to mouth · Bhutan.
BhutanFlows into Manas River1st longest in Bhutan
In numbers
Length
257km
Average flow
150m³/s
Basin
9,722km²
Drop
4,401m
from 4,701 m to 300 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
257 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 4,701 m
- 257 kmManas Riverat 300 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bhutan
At the mouth it carries 152 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 16 seconds. It drops from 4,701 m to 300 m, 17 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 9,722 km², about the size of CY. 63,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to August; lowest: from December to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- PemagatshelLargest city on its banks · 13,864 people
- Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (GAU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 105 km from the cityCar hire at PBH airport (Paro)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and OctoberThe best months to visit
Kuri Chhu, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: April and October.
From about 9.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 370 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
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The basin
Kuri Chhu: the basin in numbers
9,722 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 63,000people live in the basin
- 7/km²people per km²
- 4,139maverage altitude of the basin
- 673mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.9°Caverage air temperature
- 28%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 9%glaciers
- 16%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 27% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 57% Pasture
- 9% 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
Kuri Chhu: what you find on the way
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Kuri Chhu 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.
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Gangkhar Puensum14 km away · prominence 2,995 m7,570m
- Liankang Kangri12 km away · prominence 234 m7,534m
- Gejag Kangri8.7 km away6,970m
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Manas River
India400 km500 m³/sIn the same basin
India2,525 km12,000 m³/sBrahmaputra RiverIndia2,900 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/sNearby
Rivers nearby
India2,900 km19,500 m³/s107 km awaySankosh RiverIndia320 km5,400 m³/s183 km awayTeesta RiverBangladesh470 km1,300 m³/s234 km awayParo ChhuBhutan80 km32 m³/s170 km awayHa ChhuBhutan29 km17 m³/s171 km awayGangesIndia2,525 km12,000 m³/s430 km awayJamuna RiverBangladesh245 km20,100 m³/s390 km awayPadma RiverBangladesh120 km32,000 m³/s430 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q6445952) · 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.
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit