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 India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It rises near

Mahabaleshwar Mahabaleshwar () is a small town and a municipal council in Satara district, Maharashtra, India. It is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus because Krishna river has its origin here. The British colonial rulers developed the town as a hill station ...

, 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 The Koyna Dam is one of the largest dams in Maharashtra, India. It is a rubble-concrete dam constructed on Koyna River which rises in Mahabaleshwar, a hillstation in Sahyadri ranges. It is located in Koyna Nagar, Satara district, in the Weste ...

and the

Koyna Hydroelectric Project The Koyna Hydroelectric Project is the largest hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power plant in India, just after Tehri Dam Project. It is a complex project with four dams including the largest dam on the Koyna River, Maharashtra hence the name Ko ...

. 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 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 Karad is a city in Satara district of Indian state of Maharashtra and it is 320 km (180.19 miles) from Mumbai and 159 km from Pune. It lies at the confluence of Koyna River and the Krishna River known as the "Priti sangam". The ...

Pritisangam Pritisangam is a place where Krishna river and Koyna river meet each other. Both rivers originate from Mahabaleshwar and meet each other at Karad from front. This sangam is very rare in world where two rivers come from front and take a turn and ...

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 A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

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 Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

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, and

Gayatri Gayatri (Sanskrit: गायत्री, IAST:Gāyatrī) is the personified form of the Gayatri Mantra, a popular hymn from Vedic texts. She is also known as Savitri, and bears the epithet of ''Vedamata'' (mother of the Vedas). Gayatri is ofte ...

. 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

trimurti The Trimūrti (; Sanskrit: त्रिमूर्ति ', "three forms" or "trinity") are the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified as a triad of de ...

s 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 Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

External links

References

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