The Indus River Nourishes Pakistan!

The Indus River runs through beautiful sites in the world. It has other two names. In each area the river crosses people give it a different name according to their cultural backgrounds.

People call it Lion River in Tibet, following a mythology that says the river flows from the mouth of a lion. Between the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges, it flows from the direction of the rising sun and people call it the Eastern River accordingly.

The following lines are about this valley as important source of water to Pakistan and makes much of its agricultural income. If you have any comment, or if you want to write about any other beautiful site in Pakistan, please use the form on the bottom of the page to write it. Thanks.

This is also an invitation for Pakistani people to write about any city in their country.

In Pashto (Indo-Iranian), people call it Abasin or Father of Rivers. However, this name belongs too to the Sudanese Nile. The river flows through north India and southwest through Kashmir to Pakistan and the Arabian Sea.

In ancient India, folkloric tales suggest that the name India came from the name of the river. The river valley was once a ground to some civilizations such as the Harappans, the Maurya and Gupta empires more than 4,000 years ago, until the survival of Hinduism and Buddhism.

The source of the Indus River is the Tibetan plateau. The river fed by glaciers from the Himalaya and Karakoram Mountains (in the border between Pakistan, India and China) and Hindu Kush mountain range between central and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.

In this spot lies Skardu the capital of Skardu District surrounded by mountains that hide Karakoram Range. The city is also located at the area where Indus River and Shigar River confluence.

It runs 3,000 kilometres through the mountains and in gigantic canyons before it reaches the flat plains of the Indus Valley in Pakistan and flows into the Arabian Sea.

The Indus serves as a lifeline for the people of Pakistan. It nourishes temperate forests, plains and countryside, as it winds its way through the country. As the only major river system in one of the world's most arid countries, it supplies water for irrigation in rural areas as well as for use in towns and cities.

Pakistan has used the river for years as part of the biggest irrigation system in the world that turns 15 million hectares of land from desert easier to cultivated farmland. Overall, this irrigation system accounts for two-thirds of all jobs in Pakistan and 80% of its exports.

There are species of fish and mammal species in the Indus River. The numbers of endangered dolphins were once 1,100. However, some sources say there are only 400 river dolphins left in the Indus River. Those river dolphins are blind and they give birth and feed small dolphins their mothers' milk.

Climate change and the melting of Tibetan glaciers could turn the Indus River into a seasonal river. Pakistan suffers already from water shortages, but future melting of glaciers and more unstable rainfall patterns will disrupt water supplies even more through out the region.

In the absence of any other source of water, this would have a devastating effect on the Pakistani people. Eventually, water shortage may ultimately lead to mass emigration and shake the country's national economic base.

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