The Indus is closely related to the history of India and gave its name to the country. Indus River flows 1,114 km in India. It flows from the
Himalayas approximately southwest to the
Arabian Sea. The
Indus Valley Civilization, one of the oldest urban civilizations in the world, flourished here.
The ultimate source of the Indus is actually in Tibet; it begins at the confluence of the Sengge River and Gar River that drain the Nganglong Kangri and Gangdise Shan ranges. The Indus then flows northwest through Jammu and Kashmir, just south of the
Karakoram range, then gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi. It is dammed in this area also, forming the Tarbela Reservoir. The remainder of its route to the sea is in plains of the Punjab and Sind, and the river becomes slow-flowing highly braided. Passing by Hyderabad, it ends in a large delta to the southeast of Karachi that has now been recognised by conservationists as one of the world's most important ecological regions.
The Indus River Dolphin, modern genetic studies show, lives both in the Indus River and in the Ganges. The two populations were formerly considered distinct species. It formerly occurred in the tributaries of the Indus also and may have extended into the northwestern extremities of the Indian Province of Punjab.
