The Vaitarna River (
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: ''Vaitarṇā'', pronunciation:
əit̪əɾɳaː is a river in
Nashik
Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashik ...
and
Palghar district
Palghar District (Marathi pronunciation: aːlɡʱəɾ is a district in the state of Maharashtra in Konkan Division.
On 1 Aug 2014, the State government of Maharashtra announced the formation of the 36th district of Maharashtra Palghar, it was ...
of Maharashtra. The
Tansa is its left bank tributary and the
Pinjal,
Dehraja, and
Surya
Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...
are its right bank tributaries. Upper stretches of the Vaitarna are clean but in lower stretches it is polluted due to untreated industrial and civic waste. The Vaitarna is one of the most polluted rivers in India.
Course
It originates in Sahyadri mountain ranges near Trimbakeshwar. The Vaitarna is just 2 km away from India’s second longest river, the Godavari. Vaitarna has a confluence with the
Tanasa just before it enters the
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
.
Jhow and
Wadhiv islands lie in its estuary.
Arnala Island lies off its mouth. It has three major dams which supply water to Mumbai.
Significance
The Vaitarna supplies much of Mumbai's drinking water. It is the largest river in the Northern Konkan region and drains
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 ...
's whole Palghar district.
Legacy
The , a steamship, was named after the river.
References
Rivers of Maharashtra
Rivers of India
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