List of Rivers of Bangladesh - Tangail District

Tangail District

The newly formed Tangail district is flanked on the west by the mighty river Jamuna, which is nowhere less than 4 miles wide during the rainy season. The Dhaleshwari, first an old channel of the Ganges and then of the Brahmaputra, cuts across the south-western comer of the district on its powerful sweep to join the Meghna near Narayanganj. The old name of Dhaleswari was "Gajghata". It used to flow afterwards by the Salimabad Channel and then at last by Porabari Channell. A part of the eastern boundary of the district runs close to the Banar river. The river Bangshi flows almost down the middle of the district, branching out from the old Brahmaputta to the north from near Jamalpur. Bangshi falls into Dhaleswari near Savar, in Dhaka district. The Bangshi forms a natural barrier to the Madhupur Jungle on the Tangail side, all the way from Madhupur to Mirzapur. It is only fordable at two or three places near Basail on its my to river Meghna. Dhaleswari itself however takes out from the Jamuna from inside Tangail district.

Among other important rivers of the district, Lohajang is worth mentioning. It flows past the district headquarters of Tangail and is almost dead at present (in moribund condition). Other rivers are Khiru, Nanglai Nadi, Atai, and Jhinai. The old Brahmaputra's most important off-shoot is the Jhinai; striking off near Jamalpur it rejoins the Jamuna north of Sarishabari, while another branch flows past Gopalpur. Now these sub-systems of rivers, viz, Bangshi and Banar, and the Lohajang, Khiru, Nangtai Nadi, Atia and Jhinai are all dying out because of the shift of the old Brahmaputra river from its former channel to the present Jamuna channel.

The most important question in connection with the river system of Tangail vis-a-vis Mymensingh district is when and why the Bmbmaputra river changed its main old channel. During the last 150 years or so, this diversion of the old Brahmaputra to its present Jamuna channel has considerably prompted the geographers and geologists to enquire deep into it. Two theories are advanced: As explanation of the diversion, one theory describes the gradua1 uplift of the Madhupur Tract and a final trigger action of the Teesta diversion in 1787 as the chief factor; and the other theory states that the Brahmaputra diversion resulted directly from a major increase in its volume of water due to beheading of the Tsangpo river of Tibet by Dihang, a tributary of the then small Brahmaputral. It has now been proved that the great Tibetan river Tsangpo joined the Brahmaputra about 1780 and this accession was more important than the Teesta floods in deciding the Brahmaputra to try a shorter way to the sea.

With the help of Major James Rennel's maps (1764 to 1773) and of the Revenue Survey it is possible to reconstruct the history of the Bengal Delta and its river systems. It was Rennel who carried out the first ever accurate cadestral surveys and laid the basis for the geographical study of Bengal. At the end of the 18th century, probably as a result of the great Tista floods in 1787, the Brahmaputra changed its course and joined the Padma at Goulundo. No piece-meal study of an intricate river system is possible, without distortion and inadequacy.

Even though we assume that the change in the course of the main waters of the old Brahmaputra took place suddenly in 1787, the year of the famous flooding of the Teesta river, the Teesta has been always a wandering river, sometimes joining the Ganges, sometimes being shifted oastwards by the superior strength of the river Ganges and forced to join the Brahmaputra at last.

Whatever might have been the cause, it is obvious that by 1830, the diversion of old Brahmaputra was complete, ushering in a gradual but radical change in the river system of the Tangail district. The old channel of the Brahmaputra had been reduced to its present insignificance.

In 1850 Sir Joseph Hooker wrote "we are surprised to hear that within the last 20 years the main channel of Brahmaputra had shifted its course westwards, its eastern channel silted up so rapidly that the Jamuna eventually became the principal stream.