Hooghly River, Lohachara Island

The Hooghly River or the Bhāgirathi-Hooghly, called the 'Ganga' or the 'Kati-Ganga' in mythological texts, is the eastern distributary of the Ganges River in West Bengal, India, rising close to Giria in Murshidabad. It is referred to as an arm of the Ganges in the Encyclopedia Britannica and was previously the major flow of the waters of the Ganga It is because of this reason, people believe the holy waters of the Ganga still flow through the Bhagirathi-Hoogly and hence it is still worshipped today. The other distributary of Ganga then flows into Bangladesh as the Padma. Today there is a man-made canal called the Farakka Feeder Canal connecting the Ganges to the Bhagirathi. ()