Rivers — PPSC previous year questions

The Sirhind Canal takes off from the Satluj at the Ropar (Rupnagar) headworks; opened in 1882, it irrigates the Malwa districts of Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Bathinda and beyond. The Beas feeds the Pong Dam, the Ravi feeds the Upper Bari Doab Canal, and the Jhelum flows entirely outside Punjab.

Bhakra Dam is built on the Satluj river at Bhakra village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, near the Punjab border. Its reservoir is Gobind Sagar. At about 226 m it is one of the highest gravity dams in India. With the Nangal dam downstream it forms the Bhakra-Nangal project, managed jointly by Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan through the Bhakra Beas Management Board. Pong Dam is on the Beas and Ranjit Sagar (Thein) Dam on the Ravi.

Punjab's doabs are named by joining the names of the two rivers that bound them: Rachna = Ravi + Chenab, so the Rachna Doab is the tract between the Ravi and the Chenab (Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Sialkot and so on). On the same pattern Bist = Beas–Sutlej, Bari = Beas–Ravi, Chaj = Chenab–Jhelum and Sindh Sagar = Jhelum–Indus.

The Ravi's ancient Rigvedic name is Parushni; the Battle of the Ten Kings (Dasarajna) was fought on its bank. It was later called Iravati, from which 'Ravi' derives. Sindhu is the Indus, Askini the Chenab, and Sarusti (Saraswati) a separate Vedic river. Worth remembering: Shutudri = Sutlej, Vipasha = Beas, Vitasta = Jhelum.

The Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej join one another to form the 'Panjnad', which meets the Indus near Mithankot in southern Pakistani Punjab. Sialkot lies upstream on the Chenab, and Srinagar is on the Jhelum in the Kashmir valley, where there is no such confluence.

'Punjab' (panj + aab, five waters) takes its name from the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum. After the 1947 partition only the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi flow through Indian Punjab; the Chenab and Jhelum lie in Pakistani Punjab. The Yamuna, Saraswati and Ghaggar are not among the five.

All three pairs are correct. The Bhakra Dam (Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh) is on the Sutlej. The Pong Dam (Maharana Pratap Sagar, Kangra) is on the Beas. The Ranjit Sagar Dam (Thein Dam, near Pathankot) is on the Ravi. Together they control Punjab's three main rivers and feed the Bhakra and Upper Bari Doab canal systems.

The Vedic names of the Punjab rivers are Shatudri for the Sutlej, Askini (Asikni) for the Chenab, Vipasa for the Beas and Vitasta for the Jhelum; the Ravi was Parushni. The list is given in matching order, so A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4.

Ranjit Sagar Dam (Thein Dam) is the 600 MW hydroelectric project on the river Ravi. It stands at Thein village near Shahpur Kandi. Pathankot was carved out of Gurdaspur in 2011, and the dam has been in Pathankot district since then. Its reservoir extends into Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. The Shahpur Kandi barrage downstream is in the same district. Older books place the dam in Gurdaspur, which was correct only before 2011.

The Bari Doab is the tract between the Beas and the Ravi (Bi + Ra), containing Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran; it is also called Majha. The Bist Doab lies between Beas and Satluj, the Rachna Doab between Ravi and Chenab and the Chaj Doab between Chenab and Jhelum.