River
Sankosh River
320 km from source to mouth · India and Bhutan.
India and BhutanFlows into Brahmaputra River
In numbers
Length
320km
Average flow
5,400m³/s
Basin
9,900km²
Drop
4,344m
from 4,369 m to 25 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
320 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 4,369 m
- 88 kmPunākha21,500 people
- 95 kmPajo3,032 people
- 101 kmWangdue Phodrang8,954 people
- 301 kmGolakganj8,244 people
- 320 kmBrahmaputra Riverat 25 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 5,380 m³/s on average: 2.2 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 4,369 m to 25 m, 14 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 9,900 km², about the size of LB. 765,000 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
- PunākhaLargest city on its banks · 21,500 people
- Paro International Airport (PBH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 49 km from the cityCar hire at PBH airport (Paro)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From February to March and from November to DecemberThe best months to visit
Sankosh River, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from February to March and from November to December.
From about 22 m³/s in the lowest month to 630 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
Sankosh River: the basin in numbers
11,161 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 765,000people live in the basin
- 69/km²people per km²
- 2,777maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,652mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.2°Caverage air temperature
- 52%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 4%glaciers
- 6%permafrost
What covers the basin
- 47% Forest
- 10% Cropland
- 14% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 4% 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
Sankosh River: 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
Sankosh 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.
0lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (0)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Sankosh River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Brahmaputra RiverIndia2,900 km19,500 m³/sTributaries (1)
Also: Mo Chhu
In the same basin
India2,525 km12,000 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
Bangladesh470 km1,300 m³/s59 km awayManas RiverIndia400 km500 m³/s92 km awayParo ChhuBhutan80 km32 m³/s147 km awayHa ChhuBhutan29 km17 m³/s138 km awayJamuna RiverBangladesh245 km20,100 m³/s242 km awayGangesIndia2,525 km12,000 m³/s317 km awayMahananda RiverIndia360 km390 m³/s227 km awayKosi RiverIndia729 km2,300 m³/s265 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q629894) · 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 | Lakeyas — 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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