Define a river system and describe two characteristics of river Indus.

A river along with its tributaries and distributaries is called a river system. Indian River system is formed by two types of rivers-Himalayan Rivers and Peninsular Rivers. Indian River System has three major systems- Indus River System, Ganga River System and Brahmaputra River System. About 77% of Indian River system is made up of these three major Systems.

Characteristics of Indus River System:

i. Indus River originates from the Lake Manasarovar in the Tibetan Plateau.

ii. The main tributaries of Indus are Nubra, Hunza, Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum.

iii. The river flows through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir in a north-west direction, it changes its direction to south direction after entering Pakistan and finally merges into the Arabian Sea.

iv. The length of the Indus River is 3610 km.

v. The Indus River Dolphin is a sub-species of dolphin found only in the Indus River.