Prof. K.S. Valdiya heads Paleochannels of River Saraswati Committee
Q. Expert Committee headed by Prof. K.S. Valdiya was for- Published on 20 Oct 16a. Electoral reforms and voter education
b. Paleochannels of River Saraswati
c. Changes in NCERT Syllabus
d. Measures for protection of biodiversity in Eastern Himalayas
ANSWER: Paleochannels of River Saraswati
- An expert committee of geologists, archaeologists and hydrologists say they have found evidence of the course of the river Saraswati, a river mentioned in the Rigveda and Hindu mythology.
- The seven-member committee, headed by Professor K.S. Valdiya of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), in a report commissioned by the Water Resources Ministry, concluded that evidence from palaeochannels — remnants of defunct rivers — suggested that the Sarsuti-Markanda rivulets in Haryana where the water courses of the “eastern branch of a Himalayan river” and the Ghaggar-Patiali channels were the western branches.
- These branches met in Shatrana, 25 kilometres south of Patiala and “flowed as a large river” emptying out into the sea that is now the Rann of Kutch.
- Apart from mythological investigation, the greater purpose of the six-month investigation was to check if these ancient channels, buried under several layers of sediment, can be replenished and used to improve groundwater levels.
