Pragnya IAS · Map 74 · Relief & drainage
River basins of India map
See India as a mosaic of twenty-odd basins — the unit in which water is actually managed.
STUDY NOTE 1
The basin hierarchy
The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system covers a third of India; the Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi, Narmada, Kaveri and others divide the rest into major and medium basins.
STUDY NOTE 2
Water is unevenly shared
Basins differ wildly in per-capita water: the Brahmaputra is water-rich, the Sabarmati and Cauvery basins water-scarce — the root of interstate river disputes.
STUDY NOTE 3
Basin thinking
Watershed development, interlinking proposals and tribunal awards all work at basin scale; the basin, not the state, is hydrology’s natural unit.
Map reading task
Outline the five largest basins and mark one interstate water dispute with its tribunal.
Map key · Reference locations
What does this india: river basins lesson explain?
The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system covers a third of India; the Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi, Narmada, Kaveri and others divide the rest into major and medium basins.
UPSC map practice & Geography Optional connection
For UPSC Prelims, pair the location with its state, neighbouring relief and relevant geographic process. For GS I and Geography Optional Indian geography revision, use a simple labelled sketch to explain the relationship rather than replacing the answer with place names. These are Pragnya-authored exercises, not official UPSC previous-year questions.
References & map credits
Pragnya IAS explanations and practice are independently authored. The uploaded geography compilation informed topic selection only; its pages, illustrations, advertisements and personal watermarks are not republished. Licensed base data retain their original attribution. These lessons are educational references, not navigation, legal boundary or live hazard maps.