The Koyna River (

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

pronunciation: oːj(ə)naː is a tributary of the Krishna River which originates in Mahableshwar, Satara district, western

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. It rises near Mahabaleshwar, a famous hill station in the Western Ghats. Unlike most of the other rivers in Maharashtra which flow East-West direction, the Koyna river flows in North-South direction. The Koyna River is famous for the Koyna Dam and the Koyna Hydroelectric Project. Koyna Hydroelectric Project is the 2nd largest completed

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

project in India. The reservoir –

Shivasagar The Shivsagar Lake is a reservoir in the state of Maharashtra, India. The lake was formed after the Koyna River was impounded by the Koyna Dam. It has a length of and depth of . See also * Koyna Hydroelectric Project * Koyna Dam * Koyna W ...

Lake, is a huge lake of 50 km in length. Due to its electricity generating potential through Koyna Hydroelectric Project, Koyna river is known as the Life Line of Maharashtra The river meets the Krishna River, which is one of the three largest rivers in southern India by Karad at Pritisangam The river is just about 100 meters in width and is slow-flowing. It is an olive shade of green during the dry months and a bluish-brown in the monsoon months attributed to much

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

and aquatic plant life. The impounded water of the Koyna Dam though has submerged a significant amount of Rain forest of the Western Ghats, it has helped a lot to the surrounding forest by supplying water all round the year. Hence a wide biodiversity of plants and animals is observed in the evergreen forest surrounding the river.

Geography and history

Mahabaleshwar is the source of five rivers namely Krishna River, Koyna, Venna (Veni),

Savitri Savitri or Savithrri may refer to: In Hinduism * Savitri, with all vowels short, a Roman-phonetic spelling of the Rigvedic solar deity Savitr *Sāvitrī, a name of the ''Gayatri Mantra'' dedicated to Savitr *Savitri (goddess), the consort of Brah ...

, and Gayatri. The source is at the Panchaganga temple in old Mahabaleshwar. The legendary source of the river is a spout from the mouth of a statue of a cow in the ancient temple of Mahadev in Old Mahabaleshwar. Legend has it that Krishna is Lord Vishnu himself as a result of a curse on the trimurtis by Savitri. Also, its tributaries Venna and Koyana are said to be Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma themselves. An interesting thing to notice is that 4other rivers including Koyna come out from the cow's mouth apart from Krishna and they all travel some distance before merging into Krishna. The biggest river Krishna River that flows across Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

External links

References

Rivers of Maharashtra Tributaries of the Krishna River {{India-river-stub