write briefly about yamuna river
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The Yamuna (Hindustani: pronounced [jəmʊnaː]), also known as the Jumna, (not to be mistaken with the Jamuna of Bangladesh) is the longest and the second largest tributary river of the Ganges (Ganga) in northern India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387 metres on the southwestern slopes of Banderpooch peaks in the uppermost region of the Lower Himalaya in Uttarakhand, it travels a total length of 1,376 kilometres (855 mi) and has a drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi), 40.2% of the entire Ganges Basin, before merging with the Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad, the site for the Kumbh Mela, every twelve years. It is the longest river in India which does not directly flow to the sea.
It crosses several states: Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, passing by Uttarakhand and later Delhi, and meeting its tributaries on the way, including Tons, its largest tributary in Uttarakhand, Chambal, its longest tributary which has its own large basin, followed by Sindh, the Betwa, and Ken. Yamuna's does not pass across Himachal Pradesh but the river receives water from Himachal Pradesh via its tributary the Tons river. Most importantly, it creates the highly fertile alluvial, Yamuna-Ganges Doab region between itself and the Ganges in the Indo-Gangetic plain. Nearly 57 million people depend on the Yamuna's waters. With an annual flow of about 10,000 cubic billion metres (cbm) and usage of 4,400 cbm (of which irrigation constitutes 96 per cent), the river accounts for more than 70 per cent of Delhi’s water supplies. Like the Ganges, the Yamuna is highly venerated in Hinduism and worshipped as the goddess Yamuna. In Hindu mythology, she is the daughter of Sun God, Surya, and sister of Yama, the God of Death, hence also known as Yami. According to popular legends, bathing in its sacred waters frees one from the torments of death.
At the Hathni Kund Barrage its waters are diverted into two large canals: the Western Yamuna Canal flowing towards Haryana and the Eastern Yamuna Canal towards Uttar Pradesh. Beyond that point the Yamuna is joined only by the Somb, a seasonal rivulet from Haryana, and the highly polluted Hindon River near Noida, so that it continues only as a trickling sewage-bearing drain before joining the Chambal at Pachnada in the Etawah District of Uttar Pradesh.The water of Yamuna is of "reasonably good quality" through its length from Yamunotri in the Himalayas to Wazirabad barrage in Delhi, about 375 kilometres (233 mi), where the discharge of wastewater through 15 drains between Wazirabad barrage and Okhla barrage renders the river severely polluted after Wazirabad.
One official describes the river as a "sewage drain" with biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) values ranging from 14 to 28 mg/l and high coliform content.There are three main sources of pollution in the river: household and municipal disposal sites, soil erosion resulting from deforestation occurring to make way for agriculture, and resulting chemical wash-off from fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides and run-off from commercial activity and industrial sites. The Yamuna, from its origin at Yamunotri to Okhla barrage, is called Upper Yamuna.