16 Facts About Indus River

Early historical kingdoms that arose in the Indus River Valley include Gandhara, and the Ror dynasty of Sauvira.

Indus River provides key water resources for Pakistan's economy – especially the breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nation's agricultural production, and Sindh.

Ultimate source of the Indus River is in Tibet, but there is some debate about the exact source.

The Indus River system is largely fed by the snow and glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram and the Hindu Kush ranges.

The first West Eurasian empire to annex the Indus River Valley was the Persian Empire, during the reign of Darius the Great.

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The Indus River Valley was later dominated by the Mauryan and Kushan Empires, Indo-Greek Kingdoms, Indo-Scythians and Hepthalites.

Analysis of sediments from the Arabian Sea has demonstrated that prior to five million years ago the Indus was not connected to these Punjab rivers which instead flowed east into the Ganga and were captured after that time.

In November 2011, satellite images showed that the Indus river had re-entered India, feeding Great Rann of Kutch, Little Rann of Kutch and a lake near Ahmedabad known as Nal Sarovar.

The smooth-coated otters in the Indus River represent a subspecies found nowhere else, the Sindh otter.

Indus River basin has a high diversity, being the home of more than 180 freshwater fish species, including 22 which are found nowhere else.

In some upland lakes and tributaries of the Punjab region snowtrout and mahseer are still common, but once the Indus River basin reaches its lower plain the former group is entirely absent and the latter are rare.

Notable examples of genera that are present in the lower plain but generally not elsewhere in the Indus River basin are the Aphanius pupfish, Aplocheilus killifish, palla fish, catla (Labeo catla), rohu (Labeo rohita) and Cirrhinus mrigala.

Indus River is the most important supplier of water resources to the Punjab and Sindh plains – it forms the backbone of agriculture and food production in Pakistan.

The extensive linking of tributaries with the Indus River has helped spread water resources to the valley of Peshawar, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Ethnicities of the Indus River Valley have a greater amount of ANI (or West Eurasian) admixture than other South Asians, including inputs from Western Steppe Herders, with evidence of more sustained and multi-layered migrations from the west.

Vegetation and wildlife of the Indus River delta are threatened by the reduced inflow of fresh water, along with extensive deforestation, industrial pollution and global warming.