The Prachi, a small river of over 78 km in length with a

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

area of around 600 km², a part of the

Mahanadi River Delta Mahanadi River Delta in India is a basin of deposit that drains a large land mass of the Indian subcontinent into the Bay of Bengal. The alluvial valley is wide and relatively flat with a meandering river channel that changes its course. The M ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

along the eastern coast of India is an important topographical as well as cultural landscape. Presently the parts of the modern day districts of Puri, Khurda, Cuttack and Jagatsingpur comprise the Prachi valley region. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has discovered pottery pieces, and tools made of stones and bones believed to be of the pre-Christian era from a mound in Jalalpur village of Cuttack district, Odisha. Discoveries of ancient artefacts indicated that a rural settlement might have thrived in that period. These settlements could have had cultural and trade ties with other settlements in the Prachi Valley that had come up around the Prachi river, which gradually disappeared. Prachi Valley civilisation is believed to be earlier than that of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro flourished on the banks of Prachi river. Prachi Valley civilisation has contributed a lot towards amalgamation, assimilation and proliferation of different religious faiths and cults. Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi on 19 May 2022 met Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and discussed the revival of the dead Prachi river passing through Khordha, Cuttack and Puri.

References

Rivers of Odisha Rivers of India {{India-river-stub