Identify the river of the Indian sub-continent on the basis of the following information:

Answer: (c) Sutlej

Antecedent (Shipki La gorge), three countries, Tibetan source, and — as a tributary — no distributaries.

Statement by statement

1. ✓ Fits Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra All three are older than the Himalaya and kept cutting down as the mountains rose — so they cross the ranges in deep gorges (the Sutlej at Shipki La).

2. ✓ Fits Sutlej, Indus, Brahmaputra — not Teesta Sutlej: China → India → Pakistan. Indus: China → India → Pakistan. Brahmaputra: China → India → Bangladesh. The Teesta flows through only India and Bangladesh.

3. ✓ Sutlej is India’s great irrigation river The Sutlej rises near Rakas Tal (Tibet) and feeds Bhakra–Nangal and the canals of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

4. ✓ The decider — only the Sutlej The Indus and the Brahmaputra end in deltas with many distributaries. The Sutlej never reaches the sea: it joins the Chenab and then the Indus in Pakistan, so it forms none.

The idea

An antecedent river keeps its course by cutting downward while the land around it rises. This identifies a drainage history, not a unique river. Combine it with the source, countries crossed and lower course; the intended match here is a tributary of the Indus system. Being a tributary does not, by itself, prove that a river can never branch.

Tibetan source near Rakas Tal → Sutlej crosses the Himalaya → Enters India near Shipki La → Bhakra stores its water → Beas joins at Harike → Meets the Chenab in Pakistan → Combined water reaches the Indus through the Panjnad

Why the others are wrong

(a) Antecedent and three countries — but it builds the world’s largest delta with the Ganga, full of distributaries.

(b) Antecedent, Tibetan, three countries — but it ends in a delta near Karachi, with distributaries.

(d) The Teesta rises in Sikkim, not Tibet, and flows through only two countries.

The trap

Clues 1–3 fit the Indus perfectly, so most people stop there. Clue 4 forbids every river that reaches the sea — a tributary never makes distributaries.

Elimination technique

The Tibetan-source and three-country clues exclude the Teesta, which rises in Sikkim and crosses into Bangladesh. They do not distinguish the other three; the lower-course clue must also be used.

Also know

The Beas rises in Himachal Pradesh and remains within India. The Jhelum drains the Kashmir valley, while the Chenab begins as the Chandra and Bhaga. A tributary joins a larger river; a distributary carries water away from a main channel. Channel splitting can occur away from a sea coast too.