Godavari drains a tenth of India yet starts 80 km from the sea
India’s second-longest river after the Ganges, the Godavari runs 1,465 kilometres from Trimbakeshwar near Nashik, which lies only about 80 kilometres from the Arabian Sea. Instead of heading west, it crosses the whole Deccan eastward to a densely settled delta on the Bay of Bengal, draining nearly a tenth of India.
Its basin covers about 312,812 km², close to 10 percent of the country and comparable to the UK and Ireland together, with some 152,199 km² in Maharashtra alone. Just south of Nashik the river swings sharply east beneath a cliff that once held a Mughal fort and is now being eaten away by floods; about 25 km downstream it meets the Darna, and later the Pravara at Pravarasangam. At Gangakhed, whose name recalls the river’s title Dakshinganga, or southern Ganges, pilgrims gather for rituals.
Near Nanded the Vishnupuri Dam feeds what is described as Asia’s largest lift irrigation scheme. Entering Telangana at Kandakurthy, the river forms a three-way confluence with the Manjira and Haridra, then marks the Telangana–Maharashtra border, taking in the Pranhita and Indravati. The Pranhita is the largest tributary, draining about 34 percent of the basin although its own channel runs just 113 km; left-bank tributaries together cover nearly 59.7 percent.
In Andhra Pradesh the bed narrows through a gorge in the Papi hills of the Eastern Ghats before widening again at Polavaram. At Rajamahendravaram, below the Dowleswaram Barrage, it divides into the Gautami and Vasishta branches plus smaller arms; the Gautami, the largest, passes the Puducherry enclave of Yanam to reach the sea at Point Godavery.
The river reaches the Bay through seven mouths, and Hindu tradition holds that the sage Gautama brought its water down from Shiva’s head. Yearly inflows approach 110 billion cubic metres, about half harnessed under interstate agreements, and the delta supports roughly 729 people per km², nearly double the national average, leaving it exposed to floods.
Source: Godavari River
