Here is your paragraph on the Punjab-Haryana plain!

The Great Indian Desert imperceptibly gives way to the fertile plains of the Punjab and Haryana towards the east and north east.

The entire plain extends for a length of 640 km in north-west to south­east direction and is about 300 km wide in east-west direction.

The total area of this plain is above 1.75 lakh sq km. Its eastern boundary in Haryana is formed by the Yamuna River. The average elevation of the plain is about 250 m above mean sea level. Its northern part is nearly 300 m above mean sea level and it drops to about 200 m in the south-east. Part of the plain shows a flat to slightly convex planation controlled by subsurface Delhi- Aravali ridge.

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The part of the plain, formed as a result of alluvial depots by five rivers, viz., the Satluj, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab and the Jhelum, is known as the Punjab Plain—the land of five rivers. It is primarily made up of ‘doabs’ — the land between two rivers. From east to west these doabs are as under:

(a) Bist-Jalandhar Doab, lying between the Beas and the Sutluj;

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(b) Bari Doab, between the Beas and the Ravi;

(c) Rechna Doab, between the Ravi and the Chenab; ,

(d) Chaj Doab, between the Chenab and the Jhelum; and

(e) Sind Sagar Doab, between the Jhelum-Chenab and the Indus.

The depositional process by the rivers, continuing since long, has united these doabs and has given a homogenous geomorphological entity to the entire area. However, the mass of alluvium has been broken by the river courses which have carved for themselves broad flood plains of khadar flanked by bluffs, locally known as dhayas. These bluffs, as high as 3 metres or more, have been heavily gullied. The khadar belt, known as bet lands, though liable to flooding, is agriculturally valuable.

The northern part of this plain adjoining the Shiwalik hills has been intensively eroded by numerous streams called Chos. This has led to enormous gullying. The erosion by the Chos is particularly noticed in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. In a short stretch of about 130 km nearly a hundred Chos debouch on the plains. To the south of the Satluj River there is Malwa plain of Punjab.

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The area between the Ghaggar and the Yamuna rivers lies in Haryana and is often termed as ‘Haryana Tract’. It acts as water-divide between the Yamuna and the Satluj rivers. The only river between the Yamuna and the Satluj is the Ghaggar which is considered to be the present day successor of the legendary Saraswati River.

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