Abstract: Achankovil River sets in one of the major shear zones of Southern India which

separates the Kerala Khondalite

Belt (KKB) and Charnockite terrain. In this paper morphometric characteristics of the
river basin developed in a shear zone is reported. Major basin parameters like linear,
aerial and relief parameters of the basin indicate that the basin architecture is much
influenced by this prominent shear zone. Development of rectangular, parallel and trellis
drainage patterns and parameters like bifurcation ratio, elongation ratio, are clear
evidences for the structural control. Further, main river course is oriented in WNW-ESE
direction, which follow the trend of the Achankovil shear zone and most of the lower
order streams are developed roughly at right angles to the main river course.

Achankovil River, one of the west flowing rivers of Kerala originates from Western
Ghats, covers a basin area of 1484 km2 and main channel length of 128 km. In the initial
stages the river shows markedly straight-channel course, but starts meandering towards
downstream. Achankovil River joins Pamapa River at Veeyapuram and finally debouches
into the Vembanad Lake while a small distributary joins Kayamkulam kayal (Fig.1).

The main river course is oriented in the WNW-ESE direction. The tributaries are
oriented in, WNW-ESE, NW- SE, NNE-SSW, NE-SW and ENE-WSW directions. In the
downstream areas of the river, a thick cover of weathered mantle and tertiary sediments
causes the Achankovil River to lose its structural control and tends to meander greatly.

Geology

Achankovil River flows through a variety of rock types (Fig.2). The major geological
formations of the watershed are Archaean crystallines viz. charnockite with patches of
garnet- biotite gneiss with migmatite. Other lithounits are laterite, sandstone and coastal
alluvium with a little clay and lignite intercalation.

Materials and Methods

The entire stream network and contours of the study

area were digitized from SOI toposheets, 58G/4, 58C/16, 58C/12, 58C/11, 58 C/7 of scale
1:50,000 with the help of a GIS programme, ArcGis 8.1. The length and area of sub basins
(Vth and V1th) were calculated with the help of ArcGis software which is rather precise
method of measurements of parameters from toposheets. The measurement of basic
parameters of drainage basin viz. length, and area, number of streams and perimeter of sub
basins are done with the software. From the basic parameters, other parameters like
drainage density, bifurcation ratio, length ratio, constant of channel maintenance, stream
frequency, length of overland flow elongation ratio, circularity ratio, and form factor of the
river basin were computed (Tables 1,2,3 and 4).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Further, systematic description of the geometry of the
drainage basin requires measurements of (1) linear (2) aerial
and (3) relief aspects of the channel network, which are
discussed below.
Linear Parameters
Stream Order

Stream order gives an idea of its size, an approximate index of stream flow. The
Achankovil River is a 7th order basin (Table 1). Stream ordering was done in accordance
with Strahler’s (1957) scheme. In the present study only Vth and VIth order sub-basins
were analysed for the morphometry. Totally there are eleven fifth order basins and two
sixth order basins in the river basin. The fifth order basins were named as VA, VB, VC,
VD, VE, VF, VG, VH, VI, VJ and VK and the two sixth order basins as VIA and VIB
respectively (Fig.1). According to Horton (1932), the basic parameters like stream
number and stream length show geometric relationship with stream order. This

JOUR.GEOL.SOC.INDIA, VOL.71, JUNE 2008

DRAINAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF ACHANKOVIL RIVER BASIN, KERALA
843

geometric relationship is shown graphically in the form of a straight line, when the log
values of these variables (stream length and stream number) are plotted against stream
order on an ordinary graph (Fig.3).

Stream Length Ratio (Rl)

Stream length has an important relationship with the surface flow and discharge. The total
length of all streams in the basin is calculated to be 2889.83 km. Horton (1945) defines length
ratio (Rl) as the ratio of mean length of channel segment of a given order to that of a lower
order. A large number of smaller streams are developed where the formations are less
permeable. Sub-basins VF and VI show higher values (Table 2) for stream length ratio
because these are located at the extreme upstream area where the rocks are highly competent
and impermeable.

Bifurcation Ratio (Rb)

Mean bifurcation ratio (Horton, 1945) of Achankovil River basin is 3.61 (Table 3). For
the fifth order basins, it ranges between 3.12 and 4.75 and mean Rb for two sixth order
basins (VIA and VIB) are 3.85 and 4.62 respectively (Tables 2 and 3). The mean
bifurcation ratios of VF and VI are 4.64 and 4.75 respectively. The lower Rb values are due
to the presence of large number of first order, second order and third order streams in the
sub basins. Except for the above mentioned basins, all others show more or less uniform
values indicating systematic branching pattern (Melton, 1958). Sreedevi et al. (2005)
reported that Rb for a structurally controlled basin viz. Pageru Basin (V1th order) in
Cuddapah Basin as 3.61. Generally, values of Rb around 3 are reported from areas that are
not influenced by geologic structures. Where uniform materials underlie the drainage basin,
the streams usually branch systematically and show lower values of Rb (Pakhmode et al.
2003). In the Achankovil Basin, however higher values of Rb for the lower order basins
(Table 2) indicate dominant of structural control.

Aerial Parameters
Form Factor (Rf)

The form factor (Rf) is the ratio of the basin area (A) to the squired value of the basin
length (L). The form factor varies from 0 (in highly elongated shape) to the unity, i.e 1 (in
perfect circular shape). Hence higher the value of form factor more circular the shape of the
basin and vice-versa. Form factor of Achankovil river basin is 0.17, which denotes a highly
elongated form. Most of the sub-basins also show lower Rf value (Table 4).

Elongation Ratio (Re)

According to Schumm (1956) elongation ratio is the ratio of the diameter of a circle (D)
of the same area in the basin to the maximum basin length (Lb). The elongation ratio of
Achankovil river basin is 0.46 (Table 4), which shows that the basin is extremely
elongated. The elongation ratio of the fifth order basins also shows very low values (ranges
from 0.12 to 0.26) and the two sixth order basins show values 0.13 and 0.12 respectively.
 The elongation ratio for sub-basins that lie on the down stream side (VB and VH), are
slightly higher (0.89 and 0.97, respectively) denote nearly circular shape of the basin. The
tectonic control on the stream development is reflected by the elongated shape (elongation
ratio=0.46) of the basin as a whole. Lower Re values for sub-basins at higher elevations
indicate that head ward erosion along the tectonic lineament is prominent in this part.
While those sub-basins, located at lower altitude, i.e. further downstream portion, have a
higher values (Fig.4) where denudational process plays a major role in controlling the
shape of the basin.

Circularity Ratio (Rc)

Circularity ratio is the ratio of the area of the basin (A) to the area of circle having the
same circumference as the perimeter of the basin. The ratio is more influenced by length,
frequency and gradient of streams of various orders rather than slope conditions and drainage
pattern of the basin (Strahler, 1957). Horton (1945) has given the values of circularity ratio as
0.6 to 0.7 in the homogeneous geological material to preserve geometrical symmetry. The
circularity ratio of Achankovil river basin is 0.20, indicates that the area is characterized by
high to moderate relief and drainage system is structurally controlled. Length and frequency
of streams, geological structures, landuse/landcover, climate relief and slope influence the
aerial parameters like elongation and circularity ratios of basins (Vittala et al. 2004). The
values for other sub-basins are given in Table 4.

Table 1. Number of streams in each order of Achankovil river basin

Stream
No.of
Bifurcation
order
streams
ratio