The Rushikulya River is one of the major rivers in

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

and covers the entire catchment area in the districts of

Kandhamal Kandhamal district also known as Phulbani district is a district in the States and territories of India, state of Odisha, India. The District headquarters is the city of Phulbani. It is a district full with natural beauties includes wild animals ...

and

Ganjam Ganjam is a town and a notified area council in Ganjam district in the state of Odisha, India. Brahmapur, Odisha, Brahmapur, one of the major city of Odisha, is situated in this district on the eastern coastline. Geography Ganjam is located at ...

of Odisha. The Rushikulya originates about 1000 metres from the Rushimala Hills part of the Daringbadi hills of the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats is a mountain range that stretches along the East Coast of India, eastern coast of the Indian peninsula. Covering an area of , it traverses the states and union territories of India, states of Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Prade ...

range. Daringbadi, where the river originates, is called the '

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

'. The river lies within the geographical coordinates of 19.07 to 20.19 north latitude and 84.01 to 85.06 east longitude. It meets the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

at Puruna Bandha in Ganjam. Its tributaries are the Baghua, the Dhanei, the Badanadi, etc. It has no delta as such at its mouth.

River course

The river flows from the Daringbadi hill station in the

district. In the

Ganjam district Ganjam is a district in the Indian state of Odisha. Ganjam's total area is 8,206 km² (3,168 mi²). The district headquarters is Chhatrapur. Ganjam is divided into three sub-divisions: Chhatrapur, Berhampur, and Bhanjanagar. As of ...

, it flows through Surada, Dharakote, Asika, Pitala, Purusottampur, Taratarini, Pratappur, Alladigam, Brahmapur,

, and the Chhatrapur block. The river is 165 km long and has a total catchment area of 7700 km². The mean monthly flow rate is estimated to be 89.64 cumecs during the 1992-93 perio
under the Daily rainfall-runoff modelling of Rushikulya river, Orissa.

Survey for olive ridley turtles

In 1993, biologists from the Odisha Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India learned that large-scale nesting of

olive ridley sea turtle The olive ridley sea turtle (''Lepidochelys olivacea''), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second-smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in t ...

s took place near the mouth of the Rushikulya River. This area is the location of one of the largest mass nesting (''arribada'') sites of olive ridley sea turtles in India.http://world-turtle-trust.org World Turtle Trust The villages near the mouth are Pali Bandha, Puruna Bandha, Gokhara Kuda, and Kantia Pada, where one can find the nesting sites of the olive ridley turtles. These are fishermen's villages.

Urban centres

Brahmapur is situated in the basin; other important towns are Chhatrapur,

, Aska, Bhanjanagar, Bellaguntha, and Surada.

Industries

Several large-scale industries have been set up in the basin. Among them are Grasim Industries Ltd-Ganjam Chemical Division (formerly Jayashree Chemical Ltd). Aska Co-operative Sugar Industries Ltd. Nuagam, Aska Spinning Mills, Monorama Chemical Works Ltd., Orissa Tubes Pvt. Ltd., etc. There are about 3360 small-scale industries of different categories, mainly food and allied, forest & wood-based, rubber and plastic products, and

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

. There is enough scope for setting up forest-based industries. The basin is rich in mineral wealth. The major economic minerals are

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, limestone, manganese, sand talc, black sand, and grinding materials.

References

External links

Government of Orissa
{{Coord, 19, 55, N, 84, 08, E, source:kolossus-cawiki, display=title Rivers of Odisha