Koyna River

Koyna
Koyna River
Location
Country	India
State	Maharashtra
Physical characteristics
Source	Hunter's Point, near Mahabaleshwar
Mouth	Karad, Krishna River
Length	130 km (81 mi)
Basin features
River system	Krishna River
Imponds Koyna Dam, Flows thorough Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary (Tiger reserve)

The Koyna River (Marathi pronunciation: [koːj(ə)naː]) is a tributary of the Krishna River which originates in Mahableshwar, Satara district, western Maharashtra, India. It rises near Mahabaleshwar, a famous hill station in the Western Ghats. Unlike most of the other rivers in Maharashtra which flow East-West direction, the Koyna river flows in North-South direction. The Koyna River is famous for the Koyna Dam and the Koyna Hydroelectric Project. Koyna Hydroelectric Project is the 2nd largest completed hydroelectric project in India.^[1] The reservoir – Shivasagar Lake, is a huge lake of 50 km in length.

Due to its electricity generating potential through Koyna Hydroelectric Project, Koyna river is known as the Life Line of Maharashtra.

The river meets the Krishna River, which is one of the three largest rivers in southern India by Karad at Pritisangam.

The river is just about 100 meters in width and is slow-flowing. It is an olive shade of green during the dry months and a bluish-brown in the monsoon months attributed to much algae and aquatic plant life. The impounded water of the Koyna Dam though has submerged a significant amount of Rain forest of the Western Ghats, it has helped a lot to the surrounding forest by supplying water all round the year. Hence a wide biodiversity of plants and animals is observed in the evergreen forest surrounding the river.