Indus
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Overview
The Indus rises near Lake Mansarovar in Tibet and flows through Ladakh (Leh) before entering Gilgit-Baltistan. The Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej join it from the left bank. With the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, its alluvium builds the Northern Plains.
The Indus Waters Treaty (1960) gave the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan and the eastern rivers to India; India put the treaty in abeyance in 2025 after the Pahalgam attack. Mohenjo-daro lies on the Indus in Sindh, and Mesopotamian texts probably call the Indus region "Meluhha".
Geography and key facts
- Source: near Lake Mansarovar (Tibet)
- Flows through Ladakh (Leh) into Gilgit-Baltistan
- Left-bank tributaries: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej
- Indus Waters Treaty 1960; in abeyance since April 2025
Why it matters for UPSC
Asked on the Indus river system (2021), the river Luni (2010) and in two 2026 questions on river identification and old river courses. The treaty is also a Mains topic in India–Pakistan relations.
Note for UPSC
Rises near Lake Mansarovar in Tibet and flows through Ladakh (Leh) before entering Gilgit-Baltistan. Shared under the Indus Waters Treaty (1960).
Prelims asks about tributaries, the states a river flows through, its basin and the projects on it, so trace the course on the map.
Asked in PYQs
- UPSC Prelims 2026 · Q1Consider the following assertion : In the Pleistocene period either the Yamuna once flowed into the Indus, or the Sutlej flowed into the Yamuna and one major tributary of…
- UPSC Prelims 2026 · Q35Identify the river of the Indian sub-continent on the basis of the following information : Select the answer from the following :…
- UPSC Prelims 2021 · Q53With reference to the Indus river system, of the following four rivers, three of them pour into one of them which joins the Indus direct. Among the following, which one i…
- UPSC Prelims 2010 · Q94With reference to the river Luni, which one of the following statements is correct?…
Questions from our Prelims bank whose text names Indus.