River
Mahananda River
360 km from source to mouth · India and Bangladesh.
India and BangladeshFlows into Ganges
In numbers
Length
360km
Average flow
390m³/s
Basin
20,600km²
Drop
50m
from 64 m to 14 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
360 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 kmSourceat 64 m
- 228 kmMalda170,039 people
- 271 kmPunarbhaba Rivertributary
- 318 kmNawābganj142,361 people
- 360 kmGangesat 14 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Bangladesh and India
At the mouth it carries 393 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.4 seconds. It drops from 64 m to 14 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 20,600 km², about the size of IL. 10.0 million people live in it. Highest water: from August to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- MaldaLargest city on its banks · 170,039 people
- Shah Makhdum Airport (RJH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 79 km from the cityCar hire at CCU airport (Kolkata)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From November to MarchThe best months to visit
Mahananda River, month by month
Highest water: from August to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to March.
From about 61 m³/s in the lowest month to 930 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
Mahananda River: the basin in numbers
11,644 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 10.0millionpeople live in the basin
- 857/km²people per km²
- 38maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,684mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.1°Caverage air temperature
- 0.3%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 78% Cropland
- 17% Towns and cities
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
Mahananda River: what you find on the way
- 4Locks
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.8 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
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
Mahananda River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
GangesIndia2,525 km12,000 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Mechi River, Kankai River, Punarbhaba River
In the same basin
India2,900 km19,500 m³/sYamunaIndia1,376 km3,500 m³/sPadma RiverBangladesh120 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
India729 km2,300 m³/s149 km awayJamuna RiverBangladesh245 km20,100 m³/s164 km awayTeesta RiverBangladesh470 km1,300 m³/s177 km awaySankosh RiverIndia320 km5,400 m³/s227 km awayDamodar RiverIndia592 km680 m³/s240 km awayPadma RiverBangladesh120 km32,000 m³/s273 km awayArun River
China530 km1,300 m³/s295 km awayGandaki RiverIndia630 km1,800 m³/s341 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q2428539) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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 |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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