RAS question
Indira Gandhi Canal originates from which river?
Correct answer: (A) Sutlej river at Harike Barrage in Punjab.
The Indira Gandhi Canal originates from the Sutlej river at Harike Barrage in Punjab, near the Sutlej-Beas confluence.
Explanation
The Indira Gandhi Canal, earlier called the Rajasthan Canal, starts from Harike Barrage in Punjab, where the Sutlej and Beas river system meets. The Ravi and Beas Waters Tribunal report supports this setting by describing Rajasthan's use of Ravi-Beas waters through the Rajasthan Feeder and by noting that the combined Beas-Sutlej stream is called the Sutlej beyond the confluence near Harike. That is why the exam answer is framed as the Sutlej river at Harike Barrage, even though the canal is tied to the wider Ravi-Beas water-sharing system. The canal is India's longest canal, 649 km long, was renamed after Indira Gandhi after her assassination in 1984, and was originally conceived by Kanwar Sain in 1948.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Chambal is a major river for south-eastern Rajasthan, but the Indira Gandhi Canal is linked to the Sutlej-Beas system at Harike, not to the Chambal basin.
- (C) Yamuna is not the canal's source; the canal starts at Harike on the Sutlej-Beas system.
- (D) Ganga does not feed the Indira Gandhi Canal; the canal originates in Punjab at Harike, where the relevant stream is identified as Sutlej after the Sutlej-Beas confluence.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan irrigation geography, especially canal-origin questions that connect physical geography with inter-state river-water arrangements. It recurs in RAS because the Indira Gandhi Canal is central to western Rajasthan's irrigation and desert-development narrative.