SURFACE WATER RESOURCES AND DRAINAGE SYSTEM
State of Environment Report of Tripura for the year of 2002
4.0 River & River Basin

The State of Tripura is well endowed with surface water resources. As many as ten major rivers is reported to generate an annual flow of 793 million cubic meter of water. All rivers are rain-fed and ephemeral in nature. All major rivers originate from hill ranges and show a typical drainage pattern called trelis, except a few instances of dendrite pattern. Table- 19 provides a synopsis of the Rivers.

Table-19: Rivers of Tripura

Sl. No.

Name of the River

Origin & Flow

1.       

Longai

Jampui Hill

Northerly flow

98 km long

2.       

Juri

Jampui Hill

Northerly flow through Dharmangar valley

3.       

Deo

Jampui Hill

Northerly flow through Kanchanpur valley, meets Manu river

98 km long.

4.       

Manu

Sakhan range

Northerly flow via Kailasahar to Bangladesh

167 km long

5.       

Dhalai

Longtharai range

Northerly flow via Kamalpur to Bangladesh

117 km long

6.       

Khowai

Longtharai range

North-west flow and then northerly via Khowai town to Bangladesh

70 km long

7.       

Haroa

Baramura range

Westward flow via Agartala to Bangladesh

53 km long

8.       

Gumti

Longtharai and Atharamura range

Flow westward via Amarpur, Sonamura to Bangladesh

9.       

Muhuri

Deotamura range

Westward flow via Belonia to Bangladesh

64 km long

10.   

Fenni

Originate at the border by confluence of three streams, of which Asalong is the main channel

 

It is obvious that much of the surface water passes through a combined distance of 896 km flow into Bangladesh.

A study of basin characteristics by CSME (1989) indicate that eight of the ten basins are within the territorial limit of Tripura while basin areas of river Fenni and Langai are shared by two Indian States viz. Tripura and Mizoram and Bangladesh. Collectively basin area of ten major rivers and other minor streams covers nearly 10,500 sq. km (Table-20). In terms of percentage of the basin of individual rivers vis-a-vis, total basin Gumti (22.66%), is followed by Manu-Deo (18.36%) and Khowai (13.13%). Basin characteristics of the major rivers are given in the Table-20, along with percentage shared by each.

The total volumes of surface water generated in Tripura largely depend on rainfall. A study of isohyte reveal that isohyte line with highest value of 3000 mm passes through southernmost part of Tripura, north of Sarbum while isohyte with 2750 mm-2500 mm value pass along North East-South West axis and the isohyte with lowest value of 2250 mm pass through Sonamura-Udaipur area. The pattern of intensity of rainfall changes differently in different district.

Most of the793 million cubic meters of surface flow in Tripura drain into the country of Bangladesh.  Actually more than 67.5% of the total flow are carried by Gumti (249 mcm), Manu (170 mcm) and Khowai (115 mcm) rivers. While other rivers carry 32.5% of the total surface flow. The highest flow rate of surface water is recorded for Gumti (1.05 lakh cubic meter) and the lowest being on Burima river (0.2 lakh cubic meter). Flow characteristics of the rivers including shared percentage in given in Table-21.

It may be noted that at least a part of surface water flow has been utilised for generation of hydel power in Tripura. Two multipurpose river valley projects viz. Gumti and Khowai are said to contribute 1.01 Mw of hydel power to the State.


Table-20: Basin area and percentage of basin area of total geographical area

 

S.No.

Name of the basin

Basin area (sq. km.)

Percentage of the basin of total geographical area

Langa

342

3.25

Juri

586

5.57

Manu-Deo

1,979

18.86

Dhalai

695

6.61

Khowai

1,378

13.13

Haora

570

5.43

Gumti

2378

22.66

Muhuri

839

8.00

Burima

658

6.27

Fenni

555

5.28

Other minor basins

511

4.90

 

Total

10,491

100.00

  [Source: State of Environment in Tripura, 1989 p. –72, CSME]

 

      Table-21 : Flow Characteristics of River

 

Sl. No.

Name of the River

Annual flow

(in thousand m3)

Percentage of flow to total flow

1.       

Langa

9166

1.16

2.       

Juri

15709

1.98

3.       

Manu-Deo

170034

21.44

4.       

Dhalai

 

42778

5.40

5.       

Khowai

115854

14.61

6.       

Haora

36032

4.54

7.       

Gumti

249399

31.45

8.       

Muhuri

76247

9.63

9.       

Burima

13428

1.69

10.   

Fenni

50433

6.36

11.   

Other minor basins

13797

1.74

 

Total

792877

100.00

  [Source: State of Environment in Tripura, 1989 p. –72, CSME]

4.1 Rivers and Flood

The available data indicate that all the rivers originating in the hill ranges can cause flood in heavy rainfall. Flood level of at least five of the major rivers show that the danger may vary from 1.48 meter for Haora River near Agartala to 31.50 meter for Dhalai river near Kamalpur. Table-22 show the recorded danger level, extreme danger level and highest flood level observed, for five of the major ten rivers of Tripura.

 Table- 22: Flood level of five major rivers

 

Sl. No.

River & Site

Danger level (m)

Extreme danger level

Highest flood

level observed (m)

1.

Gumti River

Amarpur

Udaipur

Sonampur

 

31.50

20.80

12.00

 

32.00

21.50

12.50

 

33.52

22.52

14.28

2.

Manu River

Kailashahar

 

22.00

 

22.50

 

24.60

3.

Dhalai River

Kamalpur

 

31.50

 

32.00

 

33.26

3.

Khowai River

Khowai

 

24.00

 

24.50

 

25.62

4.

Haora River

Agartala

 

10.48

 

10.78

 

11.08

[Source : Flood Investigation Division, GoI]

 
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