Q1.
Most rivers are named after goddesses — Ganga, Yamuna, Kaveri, etc. The name of Brahmaputra, however, means ‘the son of Brahma’. This river gets bigger during summer instead of drying up! Can you guess why?
Answer
Because in summer the Brahmaputra is fed by melting snow and glaciers, not only by rain.
- The river rises high in the Himalayas, in a region of permanent snow and ice.
- Summer heat melts that snow and ice, so more water pours into the river exactly when smaller rain-fed rivers are shrinking.
- The Indian summer is also the monsoon season, and the Brahmaputra basin — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and the hills around — receives some of the heaviest rainfall in the world. The two effects add together.
Why it happens: rivers that are only rain-fed depend on one season's rain and dry up when it is over. Rivers born in the Himalayas are perennial — they have a second, independent store of water locked up as ice, which releases most generously in the hottest months.
Did you know? The Ganga and the Indus are perennial for the same reason. This is why the chapter calls the Himalayas the ‘Water Tower of Asia’.