The two major west flowing rivers are the Narmada and the Tapti. The Sabarmati, Mahi and Luni are other rivers of Peninsular India which flow westwards.
• This exceptional behaviour is because these rivers didn’t form valleys and instead, they
flow through faults (linear rift, rift valley, trough) created due to the bending of the northern peninsula during the formation process of Himalayas. These faults run parallel to the Vindhyas and the Satpuras.
• Peninsular rivers which fall into the Arabian Sea do not form deltas, but only estuaries. This is due to the fact that the west flowing rivers, especially the Narmada and the Tapti flow through hard rocks and hence do not carry any good amount of silt.
• An estuary is a partially enclosed body of water along the coast where freshwater from rivers
and streams meets and mixes with salt water from the ocean.
• Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic
matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland, or agricultural land.
