Sutlej Valley from Rampur ca. 1857

Sutlej River is tributary to Indus River

The Sutlej River (alternatively spelled as Satluj River) (Punjabi: ਸਤਲੁਜ, Sanskrit: शुतुद्रि, Śutudri, Urdu: ستلج, and Hindi: सतलज) is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroad region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. It is located north of the Vindhya Range, south of the Hindu Kush segment of the Himalayas, and east of the Central Sulaiman Range in Pakistan.

The Sutlej is sometimes known as the Red River. It is the easternmost tributary of the Indus River. Its source is from Lowangko Co, Tibet near Lake Rakshastal in Tibet, China, near Mount Kailas, and it flows generally west and southwest entering India through the Shipki La pass in Himachal Pradesh. In Pakistan, it waters the ancient and historical former Bahawalpur state. The region to its south and east is arid, and is known as Cholistan a part of Bahawalpur Division. The Sutlej is joined by the Beas River in Hari-Ke-Patan, Amritsar, Punjāb, India, and continues southwest into Pakistan to unite with the Chenab River, forming the Panjnad River near Bahawalpur. The Panjnad joins the Indus River at Mithankot. Indus then flows through a gorge near Sukkur, flows through the fertile plains region of Sindh, forming large delta region between border of Gujarat, India & Pakistan and finally terminates in the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Pakistan.

The waters of the Sutlej are allocated to India under the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan, and are mostly diverted to irrigation canals in India.^{[1][dead link]} There are several major hydroelectric projects on the Sutlej, for example, the 1,000 MW Bhakra Dam, the 1,000 MW Karcham-Wangtoo and the 1,530 MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydroelectric Dam.^[2] There has been a proposal to build a 214-kilometre (133 mi) long heavy freight canal, known as the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL),^[3] in India to connect the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers. However, the proposal met obstacles and was referred to the Supreme Court.

The Sutlej was known as Śutudri in the Vedic period.

History[link]

The Upper Sutlej Valley was once known as the Garuda Valley by the Zhang Zhung, the ancient civilization of western Tibet. The Garuda Valley was the centre of their empire which stretched many many miles into the nearby Himalayas. The Zhang Zhung built a towering palace in the Upper Sutlej Valley called Kyunglung, the ruins of which still exist today nearby to the village of Moincer, southwest of Mount Kailash (Mount Ti-se) Eventually the Zhang Zhung were conquered by the Tibetan Empire.

Today, the Sutlej Valley is inhabited by nomadic descendants of the Zhang Zhung who live in tiny villages of as yak herders.

Geology of the Sutlej[link]

The Sutlej, along with all of the Punjab rivers, is thought to have drained east into the Ganges prior to 5 mya.^[4]

There is substantial geologic evidence to indicate that prior to 1700 BC at the latest, Sutlej was an important tributary of the Ghaggar-Hakra River (possibly through the Saraswati river) rather than the Indus with various authors putting the redirection from 2500-2000 BC.^[5][6] or 5000-3000 BC^[7] Geologists believe that tectonic activity created elevation changes which redirected the flow of Sutlej from the southeast to the southwest.^{[citation needed]} The mighty Saraswati then began to dry up, causing desertification of Cholistan and the eastern part of the modern state of Sindh. The desertification resulted in abandonment of numerous ancient human settlements along the banks of Saraswati.^{[citation needed]}

There is some evidence that the high rate of erosion caused by the modern Sutlej River has influenced the local faulting and rapidly exhumed rocks above Rampur.^[8] This would be similar to, but on a much smaller scale then, the exhumation of rocks by the Indus River in Nanga Parbat, Pakistan. The Sutlej river also exposes a doubled inverted metamorphic gradient.^[9]

The source of the Sutlej is just west of Mt. Kailash in western Tibet. This is a roadless area, and was first explored by kayak and raft by Russian and German teams in 2004.^[10]

The largest modern industrial city along the Sutlej banks is Ludhiana.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Using inflated animal skins to cross the Sutlej River, c. 1905

• 

  Sutlej River in Kinnaur Valley, Himachal Pradesh

• 

  Cattle grazing on the banks of the river in Ropar, Punjab

See also[link]

• List of rivers of India

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sutlej River

v t e Hydrography of India Inland Beas Betwa Brahmaputra Chambal Chenab Chilika Lake Dal Lake Damodar Ganges Ganges Basin Ganges Delta Ghaghara Godavari Indus Indus Delta Jhelum Kali Kaveri Kerala backwaters Koshi Krishna Luni Mahanadi Malampuzha Narmada Nizam Sagar Padma Pookode Lake Powai Lake Ravi Red Hills Lake Roopkund (Skeleton Lake) Sapt Koshi Sarasvati Sharda Son Sutlej Tapti Vaigai Yamuna Coastal Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal Gulf of Khambhat Gulf of Kutch Gulf of Mannar Indian Ocean Laccadive Sea Palk Strait Categories Lakes of India Reservoirs and dams in India Rivers of India

v t e The five rivers of the Punjab Punjabi names Jhelum Ravi Chenab Beas Satluj Greek names Hydaspes Hydraotes Acesines Hyphasis Hesidros Sanskrit names Vitasta Parushani Ashikini Vipasa Shatadru

v t e Geography of Himachal Pradesh Lakes Renuka Lake Maharana Pratap Sagar Gobind Sagar more... Rivers Beas Chenab Ravi Sutlej Yamuna Districts Bilaspur Chamba Hamirpur Kangra Kinnaur Kullu Lahaul and Spiti Mandi Sirmaur Shimla Solan Una Other Climate of Himachal Pradesh Protected areas of Himachal Pradesh List of peaks in Himachal Pradesh