Kalu Ganga River | Ancient Kanha Nadi

Kalu Ganga River
Kalu Ganga (Sinhala: කළු ගඟ; Tamil: களுகங்கைை) is considered one of the major rivers in Sri Lanka. It is the 10th longest river and the second-largest river by discharge volume in the country (Katupotha, 2011; Schulz & Kingston, 2017; Vithanage, 1988). The river is 129 km long and drains an area of 2,292 km2 (Ampitiyawatta & Guo, 2009; Panditharathne et al., 2019; Schulz & Kingston, 2017; Vithanage, 1988). 

Kanha-nadi or Kala-nadi were the ancient names used to identify Kalu Ganga river (Nicholas, 1963). The river originates from the central hills of the wet zone at an altitude of 2,250 m (Ampitiyawatta & Guo, 2009; Panditharathne et al., 2019). It flows through the western hill slopes of the island and eventually empties into the Indian Ocean at Kalutara (Ampitiyawatta & Guo, 2009). In addition to agriculture, the water of the river is used for drinking water schemes and mini and medium-scale hydropower generation stations (Panditharathne et al., 2019).

River basin
The Kalu Ganga river basin is the second largest river basin in Sri Lanka covering 2,766 km2 (Ampitiyawatta & Guo, 2009; Panditharathne et al., 2019). Its entire catchment receives average annual precipitation of 4,000 mm and the annual water flow of the river is about 4,000 million m3 (Panditharathne et al., 2019).

Attribution
1) kalutara-0 by Anuradha Ratnaweera is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

References
1) Ampitiyawatta, A.D. and Guo, S., 2009. Precipitation trends in the Kalu Ganga basin in Sri Lanka. The Journal of Agricultural Science, 2009, vol.4, no.1. pp.10-18.
2) Katupotha, J., 2011. Cultural and Historical Monuments and Protected Resources of Archaeological Significance in the Lower Kalu Ganga Basin, Sri Lanka. Conference PaperNational Archaeological Symposium 2011. pp.197-213.
3) Nicholas, C. W., 1963. Historical topography of ancient and medieval Ceylon. Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series (Vol VI). Special Number: Colombo. Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch). p.118.
4) Panditharathne, D.L.D., Abeysingha, N.S., Nirmanee, K.G.S. and Mallawatantri, A., 2019. Application of revised universal soil loss equation (Rusle) model to assess soil erosion in “Kalu Ganga” River Basin in Sri Lanka. Applied and Environmental Soil Science, 2019.
5) Schulz, L. and Kingston, D.G., 2017. GCM-related uncertainty in river flow projections at the threshold for “dangerous” climate change: the Kalu Ganga river, Sri Lanka. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 62(14), pp.2369-2380.
6) Vithanage, P.W., 1988. Relief and Drainage. The National Atlas of Sri Lanka. Survey Department of Sri Lanka. ISBN: 9559059009. pp.22-23.

Location Map
This page was last updated on 4 June 2022
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