MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY IN A REACH OF RIVER GANGA USING SATELLITE DATA

Abstract

The River Ganga occupies a significant importance in India. The Hindus worship this river as it has a special place and importance in Hindu mythology. Originating from the snow _bound Himalayas, the river is 2071 km long in India and drains an area of 951,000 square kms into the Bay of Bengal. The river Ganga flows with an average gradient of 9.5 cm per kilometer from West to East. It carries an incredible large quantity of sediments at the rate of 340*106 tonnes/year (Curray and Moore, 1971). This sediment transportation is the highest in the world. Due to this reason, the river is heavily braided and it changes its course from time to time. The main objective of this research is to study the changes in bankline position with main emphasis on the changing pattern of shoals in order to ascertain / establish the fact whether the sediments which are deposited just downstream of Patna have their source from this stretch....