Hooghly

The Hooghly River (Anglicized alternatively spelt as Hoogli or Hugli) or popularly called Ganga or Kati-Ganga in the Puranas, is a river that rises close to Giria, which lies north of Baharampur and Palashi in Murshidabad. It is the western distributary of the Ganges. The main course of the Ganges then flows into Bangladesh as the Padma. A man-made canal, built in the 1960s and early-1970s at Farakka connects the Ganges, flowing through Malda, to the Bhagirathi to bring the abundant waters of the Himalayan river to the comparatively narrow river that rises in eastern West Bengal. The river flows through the Rarh region, comprising the lower deltaic districts of West Bengal, to meet the Bay of Bengal. The upper riparian zone of the river is called Bhagirathi while the lower riparian zone is called Hooghly. Major and minor rivers that drain into the Hooghly include the Ajay, Falgu, Jalangi and Churni to the north and Rupnarayan, Mayurakshi, Damodar and Haldi to the south. Major cities that stand on the banks of the Hooghly are Baharampur, Kalyani, Tribeni, Saptagram, Bandel, Hugli, Chandannagar, Srirampur, Barrackpur, Rishra, Konnagar, Uttarpara, Titagarh, Kamarhati, Agarpara, Baranagar, Howrah, Kolkata and Uluberia. The river is held sacred to the Hindus and it has religious significance. The river also plays a major role in the agriculture, industry and climate of the state. The vast majority of the water that flows into the Hooghly River is provided by the man-made Farakka Feeder Canal, rather than the natural source of the river at Giria. The Farakka Barrage is a dam that diverts water from the Ganges into the Farakka Feeder Canal near the town of Tildanga in Murshidabad district, located 40 km upstream from Giria. This supplies the Hooghly with water as per the agreement between India and Bangladesh. The feeder canal runs parallel to the Ganges, past Dhulian, until just above Jahangirpur where the canal ends and joins the Bhagirathi river. The Bhagirathi then flows south past Jiaganj Azimganj, Murshidabad and Baharampur.