Mayurakshi River

Mayurakshi River
Mor River
Mayurakshi River near Dumka
Country	India
States	Jharkhand, West Bengal
Tributaries
- right	Kopai, Brahmani, Dwaraka, Bakreshwar
Cities	Dumka, Suri, Sainthia
Landmarks	Massanjore Dam, Tilpara Barrage
Source	Trikut Hill
- coordinates	24°29′00″N 86°42′0″E / 24.48333°N 86.70000°E / 24.48333; 86.70000
Length	250 km (155 mi)

Mayurakshi River (also called Mor River) is a major river in West Bengal, India, with a long history of devastating floods.

It has its source on Trikut hill, about 16 kilometres (10 mi) 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 250 kilometres (160 mi) long.

Mayurakshi literally means "peacock eyes" (mayur/mor=peacock, akshi=eye). 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.

The Mayurakshi is famous for its strong current. For seven or eight months in the year the river is a desert – sands stretching from shore to shore for about 1.5 miles (2.4 km). But when the rains come, the river is terrible, demoniac, racing along 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 km) wide, its deep grey water swamping everything within reach. Then comes once in a while the Harpa flood, when the water, six to seven cubits deep, rushes into villages nearby and washes away homes and granaries and all else in its way. This does not happen very often though. The last time was about twenty years ago.

Many 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 765 and 1,607 millimetres (30 and 63 in) with an average of 1,200 millimetres (47 in) 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 4 to 6 metres (12 to 20 ft)