Mayurakshi River

Mayurakshi River is a major river in West Bengal, India, with a long history of devastating floods.It has its source on Trikut hill, about 16km from Deoghar in Jharkhand state. It flows through Jharkhand and then through the districts of Birbhum and Murshidabad in West Bengal before flowing into the Hooghly River. The river is about 250km long.Mayurakshi literally means "peacock eyes" . The comparison is with the beautiful feathers on a peacock's tail. Mayurakshi though named after its crystal clear water of the dry seasons, floods its valley during the monsoons. Even after the construction of the Massanjore dam, it wreaks havoc with its floods, washing away embankments.Floods and their controlMany of the rivers that originate on the Chota Nagpur Plateau and flow down into West Bengal are rain fed and have for ages wrought havoc with their seasonal floods. This includes the Mayurakshi. Annual rainfall over the basin varies between 765and with an average of 1200mm of which 80 percent occurs during the monsoon season from June to September.Some of the historically important floods in this river were recorded by L.S.S. O'Malley in the Bengal District Gazetteers for the districts of Murshidabad and Birbhum. For the district of Birbhum, O'Malley has noted "in 1787 there was a high flood which it is said, in some places swept off villages, inhabitants and cattle, the crops on the ground, with everything that was moveable." O'Malley also recorded that "in 1806 the Mayurakshi and Ajay had a sudden extraordinary rise and floods washed away whole villages." In September 1902, because of heavy rains the Brahmani and the Mayurakshi overflowed their banks and inundated the surrounding country in some places to the depth of 12to