Nara Canal

The Nara Canal is a deepened delta channel of the Indus River in Sindh province, Pakistan. It was built as an excavated channel stemming off the left bank of the Indus River to join the course of the old Nara River,[web 1][1] a tributary c.q. paleochannel of the Indus which received water from the Ghaggar-Hakra until the Hakra dried-up, early 2nd millennium BCE.

Nara Canal originates from Sukkur Barrage, Eastern bank of Indus River and runs through the Thar Desert. See also this satellite image.
Vedic and present-day Gagghar-Hakra river-course, with Aryavarta/Kuru Kingdom, dried-up Harappan Hakkra course, and pre-Harappan paleochannel as proposed by Clift et al. (2012).[note 1]
1 = ancient river
2 = today's river
3 = today's Thar desert
4 = ancient shore
5 = today's shore
6 = today's town
7 = dried-up Harappan Hakkra course, and pre-Harappan Sutlej paleochannels Clift et al. (2012).

Geography

The canal runs from above the Sukkur Barrage through the districts of Khairpur, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar to the Jamrao Canal.[2] The Nara is the longest canal in Pakistan, running for about 226 mi (364 km). It has a designed capacity of 13,602 cu ft/s (385.2 m3/s), but actually discharges 14,145 cu ft/s (400.5 m3/s). About 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of land are irrigated by this canal.[3] Within the Khairpur District, the canal and its associated wetlands were made into the Nara Game Reserve in 1972.

Construction of the canal

Before the construction of the Nara canal, the Indus River used to overflow in Bahawalpur and Sind Province above Rohri and the spillovers used to enter the Nara River. Bunds were constructed by the Bahawalpur state authorities to protect their lands against floods and spillovers, which reduced the flood intensities into the Nara River. Similarly, due to low flows in the Indus River in certain years, the Nara River did not get much water. Therefore, the Nara supply channel was excavated in 1858–59 to directly supply water from the Indus river. The supply channel was excavated by 2.5 feet in 1884-85 and by a further 3.5 feet in 1893.[web 2][web 3]

Chotiari Dam is located in the catchment area of the Nara Canal. The Nara Canal drains in to Shakoor Lake before overflowing into Kori Creek of the Great Rann of Kutch. This delta channel or river is known as the Puran River or the Koree River in its lower reaches.

Nara river

The Nara was a tributary, c.q. paleochannel, of the Indus, and a paleochannel of Ghaggar-Hakra river system.[4][5][6] After traversing Bahawalpur, the Hakra used to enter into the present Nara Canal a few miles downstream of its present head. The Ghaggar-Hakra is identified with the Vedic Sarasvati river, although the Hakra had already dried-up by Vedic times.

See also

Notes
  1. See map

References
  1. Rehman 2001.
  2. Bradnock 1992.
  3. Khanzada 1997.
  4. McIntosh 2008, p. 19-21.
  5. Schuldenrein et al. 2004, p. fig. 23.
  6. Clift et al. 2012, p. fig. 1.

Sources
Printed sources
  • Bradnock, Robert W. (1993). South Asian handbook. Travelers world guides. Vol. 1992. Trade & Travel Publications. p. 1071. ISBN 0-900751-40-1.
  • Clift, Peter D.; Carter, Andrew; Giosan, Liviu; Durcan, Julie; et al. (2012), "U-Pb zircon dating evidence for a Pleistocene Sarasvati River and capture of the Yamuna River", Geology, 40 (3): 211–214, Bibcode:2012Geo....40..211C, doi:10.1130/g32840.1, S2CID 130765891
  • Khanzada, Mohammed N. (1997). Preliminary Business Plan for Bareji Distributary. Lahore: Pakistan National Program, International Irrigation Management Institute. p. 2. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  • McIntosh, Jane (2008), The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives, ABC-CLIO
  • Rehman, S.; et al. (2001). Proposed business plan for pilot farmer organizations: extended project on farmer managed irrigated agriculture in LBOD project area of Sindh Province. IWMI. p. 2. ISBN 92-9090-464-X.
  • Schuldenrein (2004), "Landscapes, soils, and mound histories of the Upper Indus Valley, Pakistan: New insights on the Holocene environments near ancient Harappa", Journal of Archaeological Science, 31 (6): 777–797, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2003.10.015
Web-sources
  1. "Nāra Canal". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  2. Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908)
  3. "Jamrao Canal, The Dragon's Tail". Retrieved 3 April 2019.


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