Uttarakhand Information Centre

Coordinates: 25°30′N 81°53′E / 25.5°N 81.883°E / 25.5; 81.883

It crosses several states, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, passing by Himachal Pradesh and later Delhi, and most importantly it creates the highly fertile alluvial, ‘Yamuna-Ganga Doab‘ region between itself and the Ganges in the Indo-Gangetic plain. And just like the Ganges, the Yamuna too is highly venerated in Hinduism and worshipped as goddess Yamuna, throughout its course. In Hindu mythology, she is the daughter of Sun God, Surya, and sister of Yama, the God of Death, hence also known as Yami and according to popular legends, bathing in its sacred waters frees one from the torments of death

Contents 1 Course and catchment 2 Ancient history 3 Important tributaries 4 Irrigation 5 Geography and Wildlife 6 Pollution 7 In popular culture 8 Gallery 9 Books 10 References 11 External links

Course and catchment

The source of Yamuna lies in the Yamunotri Glacier at a height 6,387 mtrs., on the south western slopes of Banderpooch peaks, which lie in the Mussoorie range of Lower Himalayas, in the Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand, north of Haridwar. Yamunotri temple, a shrine dedicated to the goddess, Yamuna is one of the holiest shrines in Hinduism, and part of the Chota Char Dham Yatra circuit. Also standing close to the temple, on its 13 km trek route, that follows the right bank of the river, lies the Markendeya Tirtha, where the sage Markandeya wrote the Markandeya Purana from here it flows southwards, for about 200 km through the Lower Himalayas and the Shivalik Hills Range and morainic deposited are found in its steep Upper Yamuna valley, highlighted with geomorphic features such as interlocking spurs, steep rock benches, and stream terraces. Large terraces formed over a long period of time can be seen in the lower course of the river, like ones near Naugoan. An important part of its early catchment area totalling 2,320 km² lies in Himachal Pradesh, and an important tributary draining the Upper Catchment Area is the Tons, Yamuna’s largest and longest tributary, which rises from the Hari-ki-dun valley and holds water more than the main stream, which it merges after Kalsi near Dehradun. The entire drainage system of the river stretches all the way between Giri-Sutlej catchment in Himachal and Yamuna-Bhilangna catchment in Garhwal, indeed the southern ridge of Shimla is also drained into this system.

Other tributaries in the region are the Giri, Rishi Ganga, Kunta, Hanuman Ganga and Bata tributaries, which drain the Upper Catchment Area of the vast Yamuna basin.Thereafter the river descends on to the plains of Doon Valley, at Dak Pathar near Dehradun. Here through a weir dam, the water is diverted into a canal for power generation, little further down where Yamuna is met by the Assan River, lies the Assan barrage, which hosts a Bird Sanctuary as well. After passing the Sikh pilgrimage town of Paonta Sahib, it reaches Tajewala in Yamuna Nagar district, of Haryana, where a dam built in 1873, is the originating place of two important canals, the Western Yamuna Canal and Eastern Yamuna Canal, which irrigate the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and is also the source of municipal water supply to Delhi. Yamuna is replenished again after this by seasonal streams and groundwater accrual, in fact during the dry season, it remains dry in many stretches from Tajewala till Delhi, where it enters near Palla village after traversing 224 kms. Flood forecasting systems are established at Poanta Sahib, where Tons, Pawar and Giri tributaries meet, followed by Tajewala, Kalanaur, Haryana and Mawai before Delhi, the river take 60 hours to travel from Tajewala to Delhi, thus allowing a two-day advance flood warning period.

The Yamuna also creates natural state borders between the Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states, and further down between the state of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Along with Ganga to which run almost parallel after it touches the Indo-Gangetic plain, the largest alluvial fertile plain in the world, it creates the Ganga-Yamuna Doab region spread across 69,000  sq.km, one-third of the entire plain, and today known for its agricultural outputs, prominent among them is the cultivation of Basmati Rice. The plain itself supports one-third of India’s population through its farming.

State	Catchment area (sq. km)	% of catchment area
Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand	74,208	21.5 %
Himachal Pradesh	5,799	1.6
Haryana	21,265	6.5
Rajasthan	102,883	29.8
Madhya Pradesh	14,023	40.6
Delhi	1,485	0.4

Subsequently, it flows through the states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, before merging with the Ganges at a sacred spot known as Triveni Sangam in Allahabad after traversing a distance of 1,376 kilometers (855 mi). Here pilgrims travel by boats to platforms erected mid stream to offer prayers. During the Kumbh Mela, held every 12 years, the ghats around the Sangam are venue of large congregation of people, who take dip in the sacred waters of the confluence. The cities of Baghpat, Delhi, Noida, Mathura, Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Kalpi, Hamirpur, Allahabad lie on its banks. At Etawah, it meets it another important tributary, Chambal, followed by a host of tributaries further down, including, Sind, the Betwa, and Ken

The water of Yamuna is of “reasonably good quality” through its length from Yamunotri in the Himalayas to Wazirabad in Delhi, about 375 km, where the
discharge of waste water through 15 drains between Wazirabad barrage and Okhla
barrage renders the river severely polluted after Wazirabad in Delhi. One
official describes the river as a “sewage drain” with biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD) values ranging from 14 to 28 mg/l and high coliform content

Ancient history

Literally meaning “twins” in Sanskrit, as it runs parallel
to the Ganges,
its names is mentioned at many places in the Rig Veda,
written during the Vedic period ca between
1700–1100 BC, and also in the later Atharvaveda, and the Brahmanas
including Aitareya Brahmana and Shatapatha Brahmana.
It is mention as Iomanes (Ioames) in the
surveys of Seleucus I Nicator,
an officer of Alexander the Great
and one of the Diadochi, who visited India in
305 BC, later Megasthenes, a Greek
traveller and geographer, visited India, sometimes before 288 BC, the date of Chandragupta’s death, also
mention the river in his text Indica, where
he described the region around it as the land of Surasena.
In Mahabharata, Indraprastha, the capital
of Pandavas was also situated on
the banks of Yamuna, it is considered to the modern day city of Delhi.

There is evidence indicating Yamuna was a tributary of the Ghaggar river, also known as the
Vedic Sarasvati
River in the ancient past and the rivers were collectively known as Sapta
Sindhu or seven streams. It changed its course to east following a tectonic event in north India
and became a tributary of the Ganges instead. As the it is believed that the
Sarasvati river dried and it also meant the end of many Indus Valley
civilization settlements, and creation of the Thar
desert, the Ghaggar-Hakra river now flows only during the monsoon season

The goddess
of the river, also
known as Yami, is the
sister of Yama, god of death, and the
daughter of Surya,
the Sun god, and his wife Samjñā.
The river Yamuna is
also connected to the religious beliefs surrounding Krishna, and various stories
connected with her are found in Hindu mythology, especially the Puranas. 16th century
philosopher Vallabhacharya wrote an
ode to her titled, Yamunashtakam, where in he praises her for being the
source of all spiritual abilities and that she rushes down the Kalinda Mountain,
and verily describes her as the daughter of Kalinda, giving her another name,
Kalindi, the backdrop of Krishna Leela. The text also talk about her
water being of the colour of Lord Krishna, which is dark (Shyam)

Important tributaries

• Hindon River, originates
  in the Saharanpur
  District, from Upper Shivalik in Lower Himalayan
  Range, is entirely rainfed and has a catchment area of 7,
  083 sq.km, traverses 400 km through Muzaffarnagar
  District, Meerut District, Baghpat District, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, before
  joining Yamuna just outside Delhi.
• Ken
  River, flows through Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and
  Uttar Pradesh, it originates near village Ahirgawan in Jabalpur district
  and travels a distance of 427 km, before merging with the Yamuna at
  Chilla village, near Fatehpur in Uttar
  Pradesh, and has an overall drainage basin of
  28,058 sq.km.
• Chambal River, known as
  Charmanvati in ancient times, flows through Rajasthan and Madhya
  Pradesh, with a drainage basin of 143,219 sq.km and traverses a total distance
  of 960 km, from its source in Vindhya Range, near Mhow and support
  hydro-power generation at Gandhi Sagar dam, Rana Pratap Sagar
  dam and Jawahar Sagar dam, before merging into the Yamuna south east f
  Sohan Goan, in Etawah district,
  shortly theerafter followed by another tributary, the Sindh River.

Irrigation

The importance of Yamuna in the Indo-Gangetic Plains
is enhanced by its many canals, some dating back to as early as 14th century CE
by Tughlaq dynasty, which
built the Nahr-i-Bahisht (Paradise), parallel to the river, it was later
restored and extended by the Mughals in the first half of
seveteenth century, by engineer Ali Mardan Khan, starting from Benawas where the
river enters the plains and terminating near the Mughal capital, Shahjahanabad, the present
city of Delhi
As the Yamuna enters the Northern plains near Dak Pathar at a height of 790
meters, two canals namely, the Eastern and Western Yamuna
Canals commence from the Assan barrage about 11
kilometers from Dak Pathar in Doon Valley, the canals
irrigate vast tracts of lands in the region, then once its passes Delhi, it
feeds the Agra Canal built in in 1874,
which starts from Okhla barrage beyond the
Nizamuddin bridge, and the high land between the Khari-Nadi and the Yamuna and
before joining the Banganga river about 20
miles below Agra. Thus during the summer
season, the stretch above Agra resembles a minor stream

A heavy freight canal, known as the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL), is
being built westwards from near its headwaters through the Punjab
region near an ancient caravan route and highlands pass to the navigable
parts of the Sutlej-Indus watershed. This will
connect the entire Ganges, which flows to the east
coast of the subcontinent, with points west (via Pakistan). When completed, the
SYL will allow shipping from India’s east coast to the west coast and the Arabian sea, drastically
shortening shipping distances and creating important commercial links for
north-central India’s large population. The canal starts near Palla village near
Delhi, and was to transfer Haryana’s share of 3.5 MAF from Indus Basin, though
state of Haryana has completed its portion, Punjab is against its construction,
and the state legislature passed the “Punjab Termination of Agreement Act 2004″,
which declared earlier agreements null and void

Geography and Wildlife

The catchment area of the river, especially till its touches the plains, is
replete with Alpine, semi alpine, temperate
and sub-tropical vegetation,
and vast areas are under forest over, and supports extensive animal life.

Yamuna is the frontier of the Asian Elephant. West of
the Yamuna, there are no elephants to be found over 900km of the
western Himalayas and their foothills.
The forests of
the lower Yamuna offer ideal corridors for elephant movement. The
principal forests
to be found here are of sal , khair (acacia) , and
sissoo (rosewood) trees, and the Chir Pine
forests of the Shivalik Hills.

Pollution

The Imperial
Gazetteer of India, 1909 mentions, the waters of Yamuna distinguishable as
“clear blue” as compared to silt-ridden yellow of the Ganges.
However, today Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the world,
especially around New Delhi, the capital of
India, which dumps about 58% of its waste into the river. Though numerous
attempts have been made to clean it, the efforts have proven to be futile.
Although the government of India has spent nearly $500 million to clean up the
river, the river continues to be polluted with garbage while most sewage
treatment facilities are underfunded or malfunctioning. In addition, the water
in this river remains stagnant for almost 9 months in a year aggravating the
situation. Delhi alone contributes around 3,296 MLD (million litres per day) of
sewage in the river. The government of India over the next five years has
prepared plans to rebuild and repair the sewage system and the drains that empty
into the river. To address river pollution, certain measures of cleaning river
have been taken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) of the
Government of India (GOI) in 12 towns of Haryana, 8 towns of Uttar Pradesh, and
Delhi under an action plan (Yamuna Action Plan-YAP) which is being implemented
since 1993 by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) of the Ministry
of Environment and Forests. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)
is participating in the Yamuna Action Plan in
15 of the above 21 towns (excluding 6 towns of Haryana included later on the
direction of Supreme Court of
India) with soft loan assistance of 17.773 billion Japanese
Yen (equivalent to about Rs. 700 crore INR) while GOI is providing the funds
for the remaining 6 towns added later. The Indian government’s plans to repair
sewage lines is predicted to improve the water quality of the river 90% by the
year 2010.

However in 2009, the Union government admitted to the Lok Sabha (Indian Parliament), the failure of Ganga Action Plan (GAP) and Yamuna Action Plan (YAP), saying that “rivers Ganga and Yamuna are no cleaner now than two decades ago” despite spending over Rs 1,700 crore to control pollution. According to a CSE official these plans adopted the Thames model, which based on a centralized sewage treatment system, this meant that huge sum of money and a 24-hr power supply were needed to manage the treatment plants, while only 8-hr power supply was available, contributing to their failure.In August 2009, he Delhi Jal Board (DJB) initiated its plan for resuscitating the Yamuna’s 22-km stretch in Delhi by constructing interceptor sewers, at the cost of about Rs 1,800 crore

In popular culture

In 2005, the award winning documentary Jijivisha was made on
Yamuna.

Books

• Haberman, David L. (2006). River of love in an age of pollution: the Yamuna River of northern India. University of California Press. ISBN 0520247906.

References

External links

• The Geography of the Rigveda
• Yamuna Action Plan