Bidyadhari River (also spelt Bidyadhari or simply called Bidya), is a river in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

. It originates near Haringhata in

Nadia district Nadia () is a district in the state of West Bengal, India. It borders Bangladesh to the east, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts to the south, Purba Bardhaman to the west, and Murshidabad to the north. Nadia district is highly influent ...

and then flows through Deganga, Habra and Barasat areas of

North 24 Parganas North 24 Parganas (abv. 24 PGS (N)) or sometimes North Twenty Four Parganas is a district in southern West Bengal, of eastern India. North 24 Parganas extends in the tropical zone from latitude 22° 11′ 6″ north to 23° 15′ 2″ north and ...

before joining the

Raimangal River Raimangal River ( bn, রায়মঙ্গল নদী) is a tidal estuarine river in and around the Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal and Satkhira District in Bangladesh. The Ichamati breaks up i ...

in the

Sundarbans Sundarbans (pronounced ) is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans the area from the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's division of Khulna to the Hooghly R ...

Overview

The river has formed a major navigation route for earlier civilisations. The river port of

Chandraketugarh Chandraketugarh is a 2,500 years old archaeological site located near the Bidyadhari river, about north-east of Kolkata, India, in the district of North 24 parganas, near the township of Berachampa and the Harua Road railhead. Once it was ...

in the third century BCE was on the banks of this river. This river has been the major drainage system of North 24 Parganas and Kolkata. The Sundarbans area has a network of interconnecting waterways. The larger channels are often a mile wide running in a north-south direction. The Bidyadhari and other such channels now carry little freshwater as they are mostly cut off from the Ganges, the main source of fresh water. As a result of the

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope mov ...

of the Bengal Basin and a gradual eastward tilting of the overlying crust the Hooghly-Bhagirathi channels have progressively shifted eastwards since the seventeenth century. Bidyadhari river Haroa

References

Rivers of West Bengal North 24 Parganas district Sundarbans Rivers of India {{India-river-stub