ABSTRACT
The transition between the definitive aridity of the central Punjab doabs and the relatively humid mid-Gangetic area is fairly rapid between Sutlej and Yamuna, and in the old undivided Punjab the southeast, in the east more closely akin to Uttar Pradesh than to the Punjab proper. The Indo-Gangetic Divide has been settled, and main communication lines lie athwart the drainage: the cumulative effect of their interference with the drainage lines is probably not small. Besides the canal systems a considerable area in the dry southern margins is irrigated from large reservoirs in the valleys of the Peninsular foreland. But most interest attaches to the remarkable tubewell development, tapping the underground resources of the Gangetic alluvium. The Middle Gangetic region thus defined is very comparable to the Upper Gangetic Plains in area–about 62,000 against 65,000 sq. miles–and also in topography; as stressed, the major variable is climate.
