Rivers missing from the map
Some rivers have died. Some were never counted. Some have been struck off the list. And some are on the list but on no map anyone can open. This page follows all four.
Struck off the list
In Bogura, the Water Development Board declared two rivers “missing”: the 29 km Ghoria and the 19.5 km Chandrabati. They were left off the list of 23 rivers the district sent in for the national count, although the river commission's records name both, a 2009 district administration publication names the Chandrabati, and the book Nodnodir Nam names the Ghoria.[The Business Standard]
A river that is off the list has no one responsible for it: nobody guards its banks, and nobody has to explain where it went.
“If anyone finds these rivers, they should inform us. We will then add them to our list.”
Nazmul Haque, executive engineer, Bogura Water Development Board, to The Business Standard (16 May 2025)
Never counted
Until April 2025, government bodies gave different counts of the country's rivers, and each new count found rivers the last one missed. The March 2025 draft still left out more than 500 rivers of the Sundarbans, the Barind and the three hill districts; 227 Sundarbans rivers were skipped because officials said they could not reach them.[Bonik Barta] One river researcher has identified 1,908 rivers.[Bonik Barta]
Dried up and gone
Rivers that silt up and lose their water in the dry season end as a line of fields and houses. These are the counts on record; the first two are research groups' estimates, not official figures.
On the list, but on no map
We searched open maps for every river on the government's list, by its Bangla name and by English spellings of it, inside the districts the list gives. Only 378 of the 1,415 could be found on OpenStreetMap, Wikidata or GeoNames.[Ministry of Water Resources] The other 1,037 exist in an official register and nowhere a citizen, a planner or a court could look them up on a map.
The river commission itself says river data lies scattered and out of reach, and asks for “a world-class river information centre”.[NRCC]
Dying, and not on the map
Of the 79 dying rivers the RDRC names, OpenStreetMap draws 49. For the other 30, we went to the government's own list of 1,415 rivers and read each river's row off the PDF: its district, upazilas, where it starts and ends, and its length. We then looked for a named map point in GeoNames, Wikidata and Bangla Wikipedia, and kept one only where it lies in the district the official list gives.
| River | Result | Where (official list) | Row |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bhola ভোলা | Located (point) | Bagerhat (Sarankhola, Mongla, Morrelganj, Batiaghata, Fakirhat, Bagerhat Sadar, Rampal) | 1009, 1010, 1011 |
| Bhulli ভুল্লী | Located (point) | Dinajpur (Birganj) | 997 |
| Burikhora বুড়িখোরা | Located (point) | Nilphamari (Nilphamari Sadar, Domar) | 933 |
| Chuna চুনা | Located (point) | Satkhira (Shyamnagar) | 414 |
| Fotki ফটকি | Located (point) | Magura (Magura Sadar, Shalikha) | 784 |
| Galghesiya গলঘেসিয়া | Located (point) | Satkhira (Shyamnagar, Assasuni) | 336 |
| Gangnai গাংনাই | Located (point) | Gaibandha, Bogura (Shibganj, Gobindaganj) | 308 |
| Kakshiali কাকসিয়ালি | Located (point) | Satkhira (Kaliganj) | 122 |
| Kohelia কোহেলিয়া | Located (point) | No row spelled কোহেলিয়া in the 2025 list. GeoNames has a 'Kohelia River' at Moheshkhali, Cox's Bazar (Chattogram division, where the study counts 6 rivers). | |
| Muradiya মুরাদিয়া | Located (point) | Patuakhali (Bakerganj, Dumki) | 1130 |
| Shagorkhali সাগরখালী | Located (point) | Kushtia (Mirpur, Kushtia Sadar) | 1289 |
| Shib শিব | Located (point) | Naogaon, Rajshahi (Niamatpur, Manda, Mohanpur, Paba, Tanore) | 1246 |
| Sholmari শোলমারি | Located (point) | Khulna (Batiaghata, Dumuria) | 1263, 1264 |
| Bilash বিলাস | Located (upazila) | Maulvibazar (Sreemangal) | 902 |
| Chandrabati চন্দ্রাবতী | Located (upazila) | Pabna (Chatmohar, Atgharia, Ishwardi) | 373 |
| Hanu হানু | Located (upazila) | Magura (Sreepur) | 1390 |
| Lenga লেঙ্গা | Located (upazila) | Gaibandha (Sundarganj) | 1215 |
| Mohishaban মহিষাবান | Located (upazila) | Bogura (Bogra Sadar, Gabtali) | 1089 |
| Sandha সন্ধ্যা | Located (upazila) | Barishal, Pirojpur (Babuganj, Wazirpur, Banari Para, Nesarabad (Swarupkati), Kawkhali) | 1276 |
| Shuk শুক | Located (upazila) | Thakurgaon (Thakurgaon Sadar) | 1261 |
| Sukhdah সুখদহ | Located (upazila) | Bogura (Sonatola, Sariakandi) | 1317 |
| Alay আলয় | Name shared | No row spelled আলয়. Closest: #46 আলাই, Gaibandha (44.5 km, Ghaghat to Bangali, local name মরা মানস) and #47 আলাই, Jamalpur (18 km, Jamuna to Jhenai). Bangla Wikipedia gives the Gaibandha আলাই BWDB number উত্তর-পশ্চিমাঞ্চলের নদী নং ০৬ (44 km). | |
| Ichamoti ইছামতী | Name shared | At least 12 rows named ইছামতি (e.g. #55 Khulna, #56 Manikganj, #57 Dinajpur, #58 Pabna, #59 Bogura, #60 Mymensingh, #61 Dhaka-Manikganj, #62 Rangamati, #63-64 Sirajganj, #65 Munshiganj-Narayanganj, #66 Satkhira). | |
| Kalpani কালপানি | Name shared | No row spelled কালপানি. Closest: #173 কালাপানি, Gaibandha (38 km, into the Bangali) and #174 কালাপানি ঝরা, Netrokona (6.5 km). Bangla Wikipedia gives the Gaibandha কালাপানি BWDB number উত্তর-পশ্চিমাঞ্চলের নদী নং ১৮ (33 km). | |
| Katakhali কাটাখালী | Name shared | Six rows: #139 Kishoreganj, #140 Khulna, #141 Gaibandha, #142 Narail, #143 Sirajganj, #144 Munshiganj. | |
| Kumar কুমার | Name shared | Several rows named কুমার: #214 Kumar (Upper, Madaripur), #215 Kumar (Chuadanga-Magura-Jhenaidah), #216 Kumar (Faridpur-Gopalganj), #217 Kumar (Lower, Madaripur), plus others. | |
| Manash মানস | Name shared | Three rows: #1106 Manas, Bogura-Sirajganj; #1107 Manas, Gaibandha (fed by the Lenga, flows into the Ghaghat; both also on the RDRC list); #1108 Manas, Rangpur (flows into the Teesta). | |
| Shalikha শালিখা | Name shared | Two rows: #1239 Shalikha, Pabna (12 km, between the Ichamati and the Hurasagar); #1240 Shalikha, Satkhira (23 km, from the Betna to the Kopotakkho). Both connect rivers that are on the RDRC list. | |
| Sonai সোনাই | Name shared | Four rows: #1341 Habiganj-Brahmanbaria (33 km), #1342 Satkhira (10 km), #1343 Sonai/Sinai, Brahmanbaria (6 km), #1344 Sonaichhari, Cumilla (17 km). | |
| Bagboti বাঘবতী | Not found | No row spelled বাঘবতী or close to it in the 2025 list (the study used the December 2024 draft of 1,156 rivers). |
The official list is the Ministry of Water Resources' river list of 14 April 2025 (also published by the river commission). The Bangla names are those printed with the study (The Business Standard Bangla, April 2025). For the nine rivers that have one, Bangla Wikipedia's article (quoting the Water Development Board's river number) gives the same district. See each river's page for the full row.