India’s northwest, scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-KgP) now claim they have found evidence of another “lost” Indian river  Called “Chandrabhaga“, this ancient river is believed to have existed at a distance of about two km from the 13th century Sun Temple at Konark, a Unesco World Heritage Site in the eastern state of Odisha.

• The IIT study aimed to verify this myth. They did this through integrated geological and geophysical exploration in conjunction with historical evidence and analysis of satellite data.
• Imagery from Landsat and Terra satellites of the US and those obtained by NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour’s “Radar Topographic Mission” in 2000 were used.
• According to their report, the satellite imagery and Google Earth image showed a “sinusoidal” trace, characteristic of a typical “palaeo-channel” — remnant of an inactive river — passing north of the Sun Temple extending approximately parallel to the coast.
• Combining the myths with scientific and historical evidence, the identified palaeo-channel may be correlated to the lost river Chandrabhaga.
• According to the IIT team, identification of such a palaeo-channel “may lead to the delineation of pockets of freshwater zones within a dominantly saline water environment, and may even partially alleviate the drinking-water problem along the Odisha coast.