ABSTRACT
The pride of Bangladesh is her waterways: the large network of rivers, streams and canals which total at least fifteen thousand miles in length. They consist of tiny mountain streams, winding seasonal creeks, muddy Khals, some truly magnificent rivers and their tributaries and distributaries. The Tista was the most important river of the Northern Region till 1787. Before that year it used to be the principal source of supply for the Karatoa, Atrai, Jobuneshwori and other rivers. The Karatoa is an intriguing river. It was formerly the main channel of the Tista, and possibly was also a distributary of the Brahmaputra. In the Seir-ul-Mutakharin it is recorded that this river was three times the size of the Ganges when Bakhtiar Khilji invaded the Northern Region. The rivers west of the Atrai are all tributary to Ganges, but since they also drain the Ganges-Brahmaputra paradelta.
