River
Paro Chhu
80 km from source to mouth · Bhutan.
BhutanFlows into Raidāk River2nd longest in Bhutan
In numbers
Length
80km
Average flow
32m³/s
Basin
2,487km²
Drop
1,877m
from 3,943 m to 2,066 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
80 km of river and 1 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 3,943 m
- 52 kmParo11,448 people
- 80 kmRaidāk Riverat 2,066 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 32 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 77 seconds. It drops from 3,943 m to 2,066 m, 24 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,487 km², about the size of RE. 129,000 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
- ParoLargest city on its banks · 11,448 people
- Paro International Airport (PBH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the cityCar hire at PBH airport (Paro)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit
Paro Chhu, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from April to June and from September to October.
From about 2.5 m³/s in the lowest month to 98 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
Paro Chhu: the basin in numbers
2,487 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 129,000people live in the basin
- 52/km²people per km²
- 3,706maverage altitude of the basin
- 766mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 4.8°Caverage air temperature
- 37%protected areas
- 2%glaciers
- 7%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 73% Forest
- 3% Cropland
- 11% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 2% 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.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Paro 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
- Chomolhari8.9 km away · prominence 2,086 m7,326m
- Tserim Kang11 km away6,532m
- Qomo Lhari14 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
Paro Chhu in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
In 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
Bhutan29 km17 m³/s10 km awaySankosh RiverIndia320 km5,400 m³/s147 km awayManas RiverIndia400 km500 m³/s166 km awayBrahmaputra RiverIndia2,900 km19,500 m³/s249 km awayTeesta RiverBangladesh470 km1,300 m³/s202 km awayKuri ChhuBhutan257 km150 m³/s170 km awayArun River
China530 km1,300 m³/s239 km awayKosi RiverIndia729 km2,300 m³/s307 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q3915526) · 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 |
| 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
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