CHENAB (the Greek Acesines), one of the “Five rivers” of the Punjab, India. It rises in the snowy Himalayan ranges of Kashmir, enters British territory in the Sialkot district, and flows through the plains of the Punjab, forming the boundary between the Rechna and the Jech Doabs. Finally it joins the Jhelum at Trimmu.
The Chenab Colony, resulting from the great success of the Chenab Canal in irrigating the desert of the Bar, was formed out of the three adjacent districts of Gujranwala, Jhang, and Montgomery in 1892, and contained in 1901 a population of 791,861. It lies in the Rechna Doab between the Chenab and Ravi rivers in the north-east of the Jhang district, and is designed to include an irrigated area of 2½ million acres. The Chenab Canal (opened 1887) is the largest and most profitable perennial canal in India. The principal town is Lyallpur, called after Sir J. Broadwood Lyall, lieutenant-governor of the Punjab 1887–1892, which gives its name to a district created in 1904.