Which of the following are west flowing rivers?

Correct — C. The Sabarmati rises in the Aravallis in Rajasthan and the Mahi in the highlands of Madhya Pradesh. Both run west across Gujarat and empty into the Gulf of Khambhat, an arm of the Arabian Sea.

Peninsular India tilts eastward, so most of its large rivers drain to the Bay of Bengal. The west-flowing group is small enough to hold as a set — Narmada, Tapi, Mahi, Sabarmati, Luni, plus the short streams off the Western Ghats.

Both rivers in this pair belong to that set.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Godavari and Mahanadi — The Godavari and the Mahanadi both flow east to the Bay of Bengal — the Godavari rising near Trimbak in the Western Ghats, the Mahanadi in the Chhattisgarh highlands.
• (b)
  Ganga and Yamuna — The Ganga is a Himalayan river flowing east to the Bay of Bengal, and the Yamuna is its tributary, joining it at Prayagraj. Neither is a west-flowing peninsular river.
• (d)
  Krishna and Kaveri — The Krishna rises at Mahabaleshwar and the Kaveri in the Brahmagiri hills, and both cross the peninsula eastwards to the Bay of Bengal.

The peninsular block slopes from the Western Ghats down towards the east, so the main water divide runs close to the west coast.

That geometry gives east-flowing rivers long courses, large basins and deltas — Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri — while west-flowing rivers get short, steep courses that end in estuaries.

The Narmada and Tapi are the large exceptions, flowing west through rift valleys between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges. The Mahi, Sabarmati and Luni drain the north-western edge towards the Gulf of Khambhat and the Rann.

Key facts

• The Mahi and the Sabarmati flow west into the Gulf of Khambhat, on the Arabian Sea.
• The Narmada and the Tapi are the largest west-flowing peninsular rivers and run through rift valleys.
• East-flowing peninsular rivers such as the Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi and Kaveri drain into the Bay of Bengal.
• West-flowing peninsular rivers form estuaries rather than deltas.

Common traps

• The Sabarmati is remembered through Ahmedabad rather than through its direction of flow.
• Ganga and Yamuna are the most familiar pair on the page, and they belong to a different drainage system entirely.

No directly related past PYQ was found.