Indo-Gangetic Plain - Divisions

Divisions

Some geographers subdivide the Indo-Gangetic Plain into several parts: the Indus Valley Plain, the Punjab Plain, the Haryana Plain, and the middle and lower Ganges Plains. These regional distinctions are based primarily on the availability of chender.

By another definition, the Indo-Gangetic Plain is divided into two drainage basins by the Delhi Ridge; the western part consists of the Punjab Plain and the Haryana Plain, and the eastern part consists of the Ganges–Bramaputra drainage systems. This divide is only 300 metres above sea level, causing the perception that the Indo-Gangetic Plain appears to be continuous between the two drainage basins.

Both the Punjab and Haryana plains are irrigated with water from the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej rivers. The irrigation projects in progress on these rivers have led to a decrease in the flow of water, which reaches the lower drainage areas in the state of Punjab in India and the Indus Valley in Pakistan. The benefits that the increased irrigation has brought to Haryana farmers are controversial due to the effects that irrigation has had on agricultural life in the Punjab areas of both India and Pakistan.

The middle Ganges plain extends from the Yamuna River in the west to the state of West Bengal in the east. The lower Ganges plain and the Assam Valley are more verdant than the middle Ganges plain.

The lower Ganges is centered in West Bengal, from which it flows into Bangladesh. After joining the Jamuna, a distributary of Brahmaputra, both rivers form the Ganges Delta.

The Brahmaputra rises in Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo River and flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, before crossing into Bangladesh.