What are Rivers?

by Swati 03/08/2021

Rivers:

Rivers are the part of the surface water which flows from their source region to their mouths.
The importance of river depends upon its length, width, velocity, and seasonality.
Some rivers are short like most of the rivers flowing in western direction in South India. For e.g. Konkan rivers like Surya, Savitry, Vashishti etc.
Their utility is lesser than the rivers in North India like Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra etc. They are long, wide and have higher economic values than small rivers.
The rivers have a lot of economic utility like hydroelectricity generation, Irrigation, Industrial and domestic utilization etc.

There are various stages of a river when it flows from its origin in a mountainous area to a sea.
There are mainly four stages through which river flows from mountain to sea.
Four stages are as follows:

1. Rocky stage and mountainous stage:

It is also known as hilly stage of river.
It is the first stage of river started from the mountain and flow through hilly area.
In this step, the river flows with very steep slopes and hence velocity of water is ultimate.

2. Boulder stage of river:

The second stage of river is boulder stage in which the river flows from rocky stage to the boulder stage.
This stage contains the large boulders, gravels and shingles with flows.
In such stage, the bed slope is very steep and velocity is more but less than the velocity in rocky stage.

3. Trough and alluvial stage:

4. Deltaic stage:

It is the last stage of river prior to go into the sea.
When the river split up into a small branches and forms the shape of delta, then it is called as deltaic stage.
In last stage, river split up into small branches and forms a delta.

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