List of rivers of India#Maharashtra Coastal Rivers

File:Indiarivers.png

With a land area of {{cvt|32,87,263|km2}} consisting of diverse ecosystems, India has many river systems and perennial streams.{{cite web|url=https://knowindia.india.gov.in/profile/india-at-a-glance.php|title=India at a glance|work=Know India|publisher=Government of India|access-date=1 June 2024}} The rivers of India can be classified into four groups – Himalayan, Deccan, Coastal, and Inland drainage. The Himalayan rivers, mainly fed by glaciers and snow melt, arise from the Himalayas. The Deccan rivers system consists of rivers in Peninsular India, that drain into the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. There are numerous short coastal rivers, predominantly on the West coast. There are few inland rivers, which do not drain into the sea.{{cite report|url=http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/IND/IND-CP_eng.pdf|title=India – Rivers Catchment|work=Food and Agriculture Organization|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140411065015/http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/IND/IND-CP_eng.pdf|archive-date=11 April 2014|date=2011|access-date=1 June 2013}}{{cite web|url=https://knowindia.india.gov.in/profile/rivers.php|title=Rivers of India|work=Know India|publisher=Government of India|access-date=1 June 2024}}

Most of the rivers in India originate from the four major watersheds in India. The Himalayan watershed is the source of majority of the major river systems in India including the three longest rivers–the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Indus.{{cite web|url=https://mssrfcabc.res.in/?page_id=13807|title=Major River basins of India|work=MS Swaminathan Research Foundation|access-date=1 June 2024}} These three river systems are fed by more than 5000 glaciers.{{cite web |url=http://www.ijsce.org/attachments/File/v3i1/A1288033113.pdf|title=Comparison and Monitoring of Glacier Retreat using Satellite and Ground Methods|access-date=3 September 2015|journal=International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering |issn=2231-2307|volume=3|issue=1|date=March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514095709/http://ijsce.org/attachments/File/v3i1/A1288033113.pdf |archive-date=14 May 2015|page=361}} The Aravalli range in the north-west serves the origin of few of the rivers such as the Chambal, the Banas and the Luni rivers.

The Narmada and Tapti rivers originate from the Vindhya and Satpura ranges in Central India. In the peninsular India, majority of the rivers originate from the Western Ghats and flow towards the Bay of Bengal, while only a few rivers flow from east to west from the Eastern Ghats to the Arabian sea. This is because of the difference in elevation of the Deccan plateau, which slopes gently from the west to the east.{{cite web|title=Formation of Western Ghats|url=https://wgbis.ces.iisc.ac.in/biodiversity/sahyadri/wgbis_info/form.htm|publisher=Indian Institute of Science|access-date=1 December 2023|archive-date=21 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521124318/https://wgbis.ces.iisc.ac.in/biodiversity/sahyadri/wgbis_info/form.htm|url-status=live}} The largest of the peninsular rivers include the Godavari, the Krishna, the Mahanadi and the Kaveri.

River systems

File:Plan of River Systems of India.png and distributaries of some of them.]]

As per the classification of Food and Agriculture Organization, the rivers systems are combined into 20 river units, which includes 14 major rivers systems and 99 smaller river basins grouped into six river units. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin is the largest, which covers 34% of the land area and contributes to nearly 59% of the available water resources.

class="wikitable sortable sticky-header defaultcenter col1left" style="font-size: 90%"

!scope="col"| River unit

!scope="col"| Region

!scope="col"| Draining into

!scope="col" data-sort-type=number| Major River(s)

!scope="col" data-sort-type=number| Other Rivers

!scope="col" data-sort-type=number| Catchment area
(% of land area)

!scope="col" data-sort-type=number| Average annual runoff
(km³)

!scope="col" data-sort-type=number| Surface water
(km³)

rowspan="3"| Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna

| rowspan="3"| North-east

| rowspan="3"| Bay of Bengal{{efn|name=Ganga|The Ganges splits into Hooghly and Padma Rivers after Farakka in West Bengal. The Hooghly flows into the Bay of Bengal near Kolkata. The Brahmaputra splits into two distributaries. In Bangladesh, the western branch merges with the lower Ganges to form the Padma River and the eastern branch joins with the Meghna River. The Padma and Meghna rivers converge to form the eastern part of the Ganges Delta and flow out into the Bay of Bengal.}}

| Brahmaputra

|

| rowspan="3"| 34.0

| rowspan="3"| 610.62

| rowspan="3"| 294.0

Ganges

|

Meghna

|

Indus River Basin

| North-west

| Arabian Sea{{efn|name=Indus|The Jhelum and Ravi join the Chenab, the Beas River joins the Sutlej. Later the Chenab joins with the Sutlej to form the Panjnad River, which merges with the Indus. The Indus River Delta is mostly in the Sindh province of Pakistan with a small portion in the Kutch Region of India.}}