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The Ganges Basin is a major part of the Ganges River-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basin draining 1,999,000 square kilometres in Tibet, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. To the north, the Himalaya or lower parallel ranges beyond form the Ganges-Brahmaputra divide. On the west the Ganges Basin borders the Indus River and then the Aravalli Range ridge. Southern limits are the and Chota Nagpur Plateau. On the east the Ganges merges with the Brahmaputra through a complex system of common distributaries into the Bay of Bengal. Its Drainage basin lies in the states of Uttar Pradesh (294,364 km2), Madhya Pradesh (198,962 km2), Bihar (143,961 km2), Rajasthan (112,490 km2), West Bengal (71,485 km2), Haryana (34,341 km2), Himachal Pradesh (4,317 km2), Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh (1,484 km2), the whole of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Several tributaries rise inside Tibet before flowing south through Nepal. The basin has a population of more than 500 million, making it the most populated river basin in the world.
The annual surface water potential of the basin has been assessed as 525 km3 in India, out of which 250 km3 is utilisable water. There is about 580,000 km2 of arable land; 29.5% of the cultivable area of India.
Water-related issues of the basin are due to both high and low flows. In India, the states of Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are affected by floods. Bangladesh – at the confluence of Brahmaputra River and Ganges River – suffers from severe floods almost every year. Northern Ganges tributaries such as Kosi River, Gandaki River and Mahananda River are the most flood-prone, but southern tributaries also contribute. Low flows are caused by scarcity of rainfall outside the summer Monsoon, and sometimes by failure of this monsoon to develop to its normal extent. The Ganges is joined by Kosi River, Ghaghra, Gandak from the Himalayas and by Chambal River, Betwa, Son from the peninsular region.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14634988.2017.1304129
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