Geoenvironmental significance of Barak river system in the Barak- Ganga-Brahmaputra Linkage

The northeastern regions of India, especially southern Assam, Manipur and Mizoram, have always been difficult to access due to its rugged and hilly terrain. Inland waterway transport is the need of the time. In this context, the role of Barak River becomes very important for the connectivity amongst Mizoram, Manipur, southern Assam and Tripura. The present work covers the total journey of Barak River from its origin in Manipur to the merger into the Bay of Bengal. Barak river not only forms the lifeline of southern Assam valley but also of the Sylhet Plains of Bangladesh. Barak reaches the Bay of Bengal after receiving a lot of rivers from Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura. Enroute its journey, it gets several names as Kushiara, Kalni and finally Meghna.
The geoenvironmental significance is amazing in the light of the fact that the well-known mighty rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra ultimately merge into Barak known as Meghna in Bangladesh and the final delta made by the combined flow of Ganga, Brahmaputra and Barak is actually the Meghna delta. Significantly, Barak River’s stretch of 121 kms. between Lakhipur and Bhanga has been declared as the National Waterway-6 (NW-6) by the Act of Parliament in 2016.
Keywords: Barak, Surma, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Surma, Meghna, NW-6.