Bangladesh and India share more rivers than the official list shows

According to government records, Bangladesh has 57 transboundary rivers. Of these, 54 are shared rivers with India according to the list of the Joint Rivers Commission, Bangladesh, while the remaining three are shared with Myanmar.

In reality, however, there are many more rivers that flow through both Bangladesh and India. No one can say for sure as to how many there are in total.

After collecting information on rivers through field visits, I found that many rivers flowing through both Bangladesh and India are not included in the list of transboundary rivers. I then tried to find out how many rivers there are in Rangpur Division beyond those on the official list. According to the commonly used list of 54 rivers, 18 flow through Rangpur Division.

However, I have so far identified 63 transboundary rivers in the division.

There are also questions about the information on the Deonai-Charalkata-Jamuneshwari river in the list. Two rivers, Kherua and Pangha, flow into Bangladesh from India and merge; the combined flow is called the Deonai. But the names Kherua and Pangha do not appear on the commonly used list.

According to my count, 46 rivers in Rangpur Division remain outside official recognition. I have also found another 10 rivers in the division that do not appear on the lists of either the National River Conservation Commission or the Ministry of Water Resources.

I spoke with historian and river researcher Mahbub Siddiqui about transboundary rivers. He said he has so far identified 223 transboundary rivers across the country. River researcher M Inamul Haque mentioned 167 transboundary rivers in his book ‘Rivers of Bangladesh,’ published in 2017.

Sheikh Rokon, secretary general of the river conservation organisation Riverine People, said Bangladesh proposed in 2016 that 16 more rivers be included as transboundary rivers between the two countries, but India did not take the proposal into consideration.

It is not only rivers flowing from India into Bangladesh that have been left out of the list. Many rivers originate in Bangladesh and flow into India as well. The commonly used list mentions only the Kulik as a river that originates in Bangladesh and flows into India.

Yet I have found another 11 such rivers in Rangpur Division alone. They include Kahalai, Jalai and Tangon in Thakurgaon; Tentulia, Nona, Velamati and Chhota Jamuna in Dinajpur; Berong and Dahuk in Panchagarh; and Chenakata and Kharp in Lalmonirhat. More such rivers would likely be found if the entire country were surveyed.

In 2023, the National River Conservation Commission published a book titled ‘Rivers of Bangladesh: Definition and Number’. It names 1,008 rivers across the country. Unfortunately, the book appears to have been published with serious lapses. It puts the number of transboundary rivers at 68.

Of the 54 rivers recognised by the Joint Rivers Commission, 44 appear on the list. The remaining 10 are included in the River Conservation Commission’s list but are not identified as transboundary rivers.

Another 24 rivers are listed as transboundary rivers by the River Conservation Commission. Of these, 17 are included on the Ministry of Water Resources’ list.

During the interim government, the Ministry of Water Resources published a list of 1,415 rivers in Bangladesh in 2025. It identified 126 as Bangladesh-India transboundary rivers. Of the commonly recognised 54 rivers, 43 are identified as transboundary rivers on this list, while the remaining 11 are not. This means that the ministry’s own list mentions another 83 transboundary rivers beyond the commonly recognised 54.

The fact that Bangladesh has failed to identify the number of transboundary rivers even 55 years after independence raises serious questions. This task should essentially have been undertaken immediately after Partition in 1947.

It is important for the government to know how many rivers flow from India into Bangladesh and how many flow from Bangladesh into India. This accounting is particularly important for Bangladesh because India is the upstream country.

If the list of transboundary rivers is not clearly established, India has an opportunity to withdraw water from rivers at will. The Kaljani, Gadadhar and Gangadhar in Kurigram are all major rivers.

If they are not included in the Joint Rivers Commission’s list, India could argue, when withdrawing water, that these rivers are not even recognised as transboundary rivers. These rivers therefore need official recognition so that there is no scope for such an argument.

I spoke to Dr Mujibur Rahman Howlader, former chairman of the National River Conservation Commission, about the issue. He also believes that all transboundary rivers need to be recognised by the Joint Rivers Commission.

Many officials responsible for the matter tend to avoid the issue. Therefore, those who work on rivers also have a responsibility to demand recognition of these rivers.

The government could prepare an accurate list of the country’s transboundary rivers within a short period if it wanted to. To do so, every mouza along the border would need to be surveyed in the field to identify rivers flowing through Bangladesh and India.

The relevant CS, SA and BS land records would also need to be examined. This would help establish whether there were rivers in the past that have since dried up.
No previous government has undertaken this simple yet important task. What will the current government do? The expectation is that it will identify the transboundary rivers and take steps to include them in a joint list maintained by the two countries.

* Tuhin Wadud is a professor in the Department of Bangla at Begum Rokeya University and director of Riverine People, an organisation working for river conservation.

He can be reached at: [email protected]