Beas River in the context of "Indus valley"

The Indus (/ˈɪndəs/ IN-dəs) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The 3,180 km (1,980 mi) river rises in western China, flows northwest through the disputed Kashmir region, first through the Indian-administered Ladakh, and then the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan, before bifurcating and emptying into the Arabian Sea, its main stem located near the port city of Karachi.

The Indus River has a total drainage area of circa 1,120,000 km (430,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow is around 175 km/a (5,500 m/s), making it one of the 50 largest rivers in the world in terms of average annual flow. Its left-bank tributary in Ladakh is the Zanskar River, and its left-bank tributary in the plains is the Panjnad River which is formed by the successive confluences of the five Punjab rivers, namely the Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej rivers. Its principal right-bank tributaries are the Shyok, Gilgit, Kabul, Kurram, and Gomal rivers. Beginning in a mountain spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayan, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush ranges, the river supports the ecosystems of temperate forests, plains, and arid countryside.

The Pir Panjal Range (/piːr pʌnˈdʒɑːl/) is a range of mountains in the Lower Himalayan region located in the Western Himalayas of the northern Indian subcontinent. It runs southeast to northwest between the Beas and Neelam/Kishanganga rivers, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with its northwestern end extending into territory administered by Pakistan. The Himalayas show a gradual elevation towards the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal ranges. Pir Panjal is the largest and westernmost range of the Lesser Himalayas. Near the bank of the Sutlej River, it dissociates itself from the main Himalayan range and forms a divide between the Beas and Ravi rivers on one side and the Chenab on the other. Further west, the Pir Panjal range forms the southwestern boundary of the Kashmir Valley, separating it from the hills of Jammu region, forming a divide between the Jhelum River and Chenab River.

The Panjnad River (Urdu: پنجند, Saraiki: پنجنَںد), also locally known as Panjnand (پنجنںد), is a river at the extreme end of the Bahawalpur district in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The name Panjnad is derived from Persian panj ("five") and Sanskrit nadī́ ("river") which means "five rivers". The Panjnad River is formed by the successive confluence or merger of the five main rivers of Punjab: the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.

The Jhelum and the Ravi rivers join the Chenab River; the Beas River joins the Sutlej River; and the Sutlej and the Chenab rivers join to form the Panjnad River. It is 10 miles north of Uch Sharif in the Muzaffar Garh district. The combined stream runs southwest for approximately 44 miles and joins the Indus River at Mithankot. The Indus eventually drains into the Arabian Sea. A barrage on Panjnad has been erected which provides irrigation channels for Punjab and Sindh provinces south of the Sutlej River and east of the Indus River.

Punjab (/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/ pun-JAHB; Punjabi: pañjāba, pronounced [pəɲˈd͡ʒaːb] ) is a state in northwestern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and Rajasthan to the southwest; by Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir to the north and Chandigarh to the east. To the west, it shares an international border with the identically named Pakistani province of Punjab, and as such is sometimes referred to as East Punjab or Indian Punjab for disambiguation purposes. The state covers an area of 50,362 square kilometres (19,445 square miles), which is 1.53% of India's total geographical area, making it the 19th-largest Indian state by area out of 28 Indian states (20th largest, if Union Territories are considered). With over 27 million inhabitants, Punjab is the 16th-largest Indian state by population, comprising 23 districts. Punjabi, written in the Gurmukhi script, is the most widely spoken and the official language of the state. The main ethnic group are the Punjabis, with Sikhs (57.7%) and Hindus (38.5%) forming the dominant religious groups. The state capital, Chandigarh, is a union territory and also the capital of the neighboring state of Haryana. Three of the five traditional Punjab rivers — the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — flow through the state.

The history of Punjab has witnessed the migration and settlement of different tribes of people with different cultures and ideas, forming a civilisational melting pot. The ancient Indus Valley Civilisation flourished in the region until its decline around 1900 BCE. Punjab was enriched during the height of the Vedic period, but declined in predominance with the rise of the Mahajanapadas. The region formed the frontier of initial empires during antiquity including Alexander's and the Maurya empires. It was subsequently conquered by the Kushan Empire, Gupta Empire, and then Harsha's Empire. Punjab continued to be settled by nomadic people; including the Huna, Turkic and the Mongols. Punjab came under Muslim rule c. 1000 CE, and was part of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Sikhism, based on the teachings of Sikh Gurus, emerged between the 15th and 17th centuries. Conflicts between the Mughals and the later Sikh Gurus precipitated a militarisation of the Sikhs, resulting in the formation of a confederacy after the weakening of the Mughal Empire, which competed for control with the larger Durrani Empire. This confederacy was united in 1801 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, forming the Sikh Empire.

The Western Himalayas are the western half of the Himalayas, in northwestern India and northern Pakistan. Four of the five tributaries of the Indus River in Punjab (Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, and Ravi) rise in the Western Himalayas; while the fifth, the Sutlej cuts through the range after rising in Tibet.

Included within the Western Himalayas are the Zanskar Range, the Pir Panjal Range, and the Dhauladhar Range, and western parts of the Sivalik Range and the Great Himalayas. The highest point is Nanga Parbat (26,660 feet or 8,126 metres), at the northwestern end of the region. It is part of the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot.

Harike Wetland, with the Harike Lake in the deeper part of it, east of the Harike village also known as "Hari-ke-Pattan" (Port of Harike), is a Ramsar site and the largest wetland in northern India on the border of Tarn Taran Sahib district and Ferozepur district of the Punjab state in India created by the manmade Harike Barrage headworks immediate downstream of the confluence of Beas and Sutlej rivers. Harike village is accessible by the NH-54 (Taran Taran 35 km north), NH-703A (Firozepur 45 km southwest and Kapurthala 60 km northeast), and NH-703B (Bhikhiwind 30 km northwest and Moga 50 km southeast).

Harike Barrage has created the manmade Harike Wetland. The Monsoon climate dominates the catchment draining into the wetland. The Harike headworks, which form the Harike lake and the enlarged wetland, was constructed for irrigation and drinking water supplies, through the Ferozepur, Indira Gandhi Canal and Makku feeder canals with total carrying capacity of 29,000 cubic feet per second (820 m/s), to supply to the command areas located in the states of Punjab and Rajasthan. The lake is triangular, with its apex in the west, bounded by a bund called the Dhussi Bund forming one side, a canal in the second and a major road on the third. The periphery of the lake is surrounded by agricultural land and the wetland is reported to be rich in ground water resources.