Resource detail

India has 12 major river basins, 46 medium river and 14 minor and desert river basins. Ganga river basin is the largest of theseextending over the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Rapidly increasing population, rising standards of living and exponential growth of industrialization and urbanisation have exposed the water resources, in general, and rivers, in particular, to various forms of degradation. Many Indian rivers, including the Ganga in several stretches, particularly during lean flows, have become unfit even for bathing.