The Kharkai River is a river in eastern

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 ...

. It is one of the major

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the Subarnarekha River. It flows through Adityapur region of Jamshedpur It arises in

Mayurbhanj district Mayurbhanj district is one of the 30 districts in Odisha state in eastern India. It is the largest district of Odisha by area. Its headquarters are at Baripada. Other major towns are Rairangpur, Karanjia and Udala. , it is the third-most-po ...

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 Sc ...

, on the north slopes of Darbarmela Parbat and the western slopes of Tungru Pahar,Jamshedpur quadrandle
NF-45-6, October 1959, India and Pakistan 1:250,000, Series U502, U.S. Army Map Service of the Simlipal Massif. It flows past Rairangpur and heads north to about

Saraikela Saraikela (also spelled Seraikella) is the district headquarters and a nagar panchayat in the Seraikela Sadar subdivision of the Seraikela Kharsawan district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It was formerly the capital of the Odia Saraikela ...

Karan, Pradyumna P. (July 1953) "Economic Regions of Chota Nagpur, Bihar, India" ''Economic Geography'' 29(3): pp. 216-250, page 236 and then east, entering the Subarnarekha in northwestern

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (, ) or Tatanagar is the largest and most populous city in Jharkhand and the first planned industrial city in India. It is a Notified Area Council and Municipal Corporation and also the headquarter of the East Singhbhum district. It ...

. Its tributaries in Orissa include the Kardkai, on the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

; the Kandria, Nusa and Barhai on the right; and the Karanjia on the left. For about below the junction with the Karanjia, the Kharkai forms the boundary between Odisha and Jharkhand State. After entering Jharkhand its tributaries include the Torlo and Ili Gara on the left. Its last major tributary is the Sanjai,Karan, Pradyumna P. (July 1953) "Economic Regions of Chota Nagpur, Bihar, India" ''Economic Geography'' 29(3): pp. 216-250, page 248 entering from the left, , as the river flows, above its mouth. The valley of the lower Kharkai is quite wide and rice is the primary crop. Iron ore is mined in the mountains of the headwaters of the Kharkai, and there is a steel plant at Jamshedpur. The Kharkai Dam is located at Ichha, Odisha.Gupta, Amit and Majumdar, Pinaki (19 June 2008
"Record rain in steel city, flash floods in districts"
''The Telegraph'' (Calcutta, India)

Name

Some think that ''Kharkāi'' is derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

word ''Kharakāyā'' meaning "fast flowing river" (''khara'' means "fast" and ''kāyā'' means "body").

Notes

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