Back نهر هوغلي Arabic نهر هوجلى ARZ هوغلی چایی AZB Хугли (река) Bulgarian हुगली नदी Bihari হুগলি নদী Bengali/Bangla Riu Hugli Catalan Hugli River CEB Huglí Czech Hooghly Danish
| Hooghly River Bhagirathi | |
|---|---|
 The River Hooghly flowing through Bally , Howrah | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | India |
| State | West Bengal |
| Districts | Murshidabad, Nadia, Purba Bardhaman, Hooghly, Howrah, North 24 Parganas, Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Ganga |
| Mouth | Bay of Bengal |
• location | Sunderbans in West Bengal |
| Length | 260 kilometres |
| Depth | |
| • maximum | 117 m |
| Basin features | |
| Bridges | Vidyasagar Setu (Second Hooghly Bridge) Rabindra Setu (Howrah Bridge) Nivedita Setu Vivekananda Setu (Bally bridge) Sampreeti Bridge Jubilee Bridge Ishwar Gupta Setu Gourango Setu Nashipur Rail Bridge Ramendra Sundar Tribedi Setu Jangipur Bhagirathi Bridge |
The Hooghly River (Anglicized alternatively spelt as Hoogli or Hugli) or popularly called Ganga[1] or Kati-Ganga in the Puranas, is a river that rises close to Giria, which lies north of Baharampur and Palashi in Murshidabad. It is the western distributary of the Ganges.[2] The main course of the Ganges then flows into Bangladesh as the Padma.[3] A man-made canal, built in the 1960s and early-1970s at Farakka, connects the Ganges, flowing through Malda, to the Hooghly (also called Bhagirathi) to bring the abundant waters of the Himalayan river to the comparatively narrow river that rises in eastern West Bengal.
The river flows through the Rarh region, comprising the lower deltaic districts of West Bengal, to meet the Bay of Bengal. The upper riparian zone of the river is called the Bhagirathi while the lower riparian zone is called the Hooghly [1]. Major and minor rivers that drain into the Hooghly include the Ajay, Falgu, Jalangi and Churni to the north and Rupnarayan, Mayurakshi, Damodar and Haldi to the south. Major cities that stand on the banks of the Hooghly are Baharampur, Kalyani, Tribeni, Saptagram, Bandel, Hugli, Chandannagar, Srirampur, Barrackpur, Rishra, Konnagar, Uttarpara, Titagarh, Kamarhati, Agarpara, Baranagar, Howrah, Kolkata, and Uluberia.[4]
The Hooghly has religious significance as Hindus consider the river sacred. The river also plays a major role in the agriculture, industry, and climate of the state.
- ^ The river is locally called Ganga because it is one of the two distributaries of the Ganges and is hence considered to be sacred. The Puranas call this arm of the Ganges, the Ganges itself. Some more modern sources, relying entirely on the scriptures, suggest that this river is the Ganga itself, 'Hoogly' being just a regional nickname. However, there is no scientific basis of this claim. 1, 2
- ^ The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (5 August 2010). "Bhagirathi River". Britannica. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- ^ Allison, Mead A. (Summer 1998). "Geologic Framework and Environmental Status of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta". Journal of Coastal Research. 13 (3). Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc.: 826–836. JSTOR 4298836.
- ^ "District". Voiceofbengal.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2012.