Talk:Saraswati River (Bengal)

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[edit] Wording

Do you think "dry" might be a better word then "dead"? Typically rivers do not go dead but they do go dry. Mattisse 15:36, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Dr. R.C.Majumdar writes,"The upper Sarasvati to-day is a dead river, but the Bhagirathi or Hooghly has deserted the old Adi-Ganga channel and flows through the lower course of the Sarasvati below Sankrail." I believe that in the upper regions a river dries up but in the delta region a river is silted up and dies. Today, the Saraswati is physically non-existent, it is there only in history books. What I have noticed from a study of rivers in Bengal, is that with abundance of water, very few rivers dry up or die, they mostly change course and some other river takes over. The Karatoya River is a classic case, where bits and pieces of the old river (retaining its old name) are there in different areas, as a part of some other river. - P.K.Niyogi 22:25, 2 December 2007 (UTC)


IMO, a dead river is a (wet) river without aquatic life (fish, plants etc.) due to pollution etc. "Dry" is less ambiguous, better use that. Markussep Talk 14:33, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
I'd recommend referring to it as a former river. Dry implies a temporary state of dryness, while dead has generally taken on the ecological meaning as Markussep describes. Kmusser (talk) 17:45, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
To me, a "dead" river is, as stated above, a river that has no life, usually because it has been polluted or become toxic so that living things can no longer survive in the water. Mattisse 15:20, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
Is the river bed is still there and that is what this article is describing? Or is there no trace of the river, and the article is referring to historical or geological records only? Mattisse 15:24, 11 December 2007 (UTC)