ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Hydrocomplexity
This article is part of the Research TopicWater Resources in South Asia: River and Glacial dynamics, climate change and societal-water interactionsView all 3 articles
Understanding Glacier Dynamics since the Little Ice Age in the Sub-Basins of Chandrabhaga Basin, Lahaul Himalaya, India
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar, India
- 2Doctor Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya Sagar, Sagar, India
- 3Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
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This study quantifies the changes in glaciers since the Little Ice Age (LIA) in the sub-basins of Chandrabhaga River basin of Lahaul Himalaya, Himachal Pradesh, India. It further illustrates the extent of the Little Ice Age (LIA) glaciers and provides the ability to understand the impact of climate change on glaciers. We mapped 1011 contemporary glaciers in 2023 using Landsat satellite images, and compared them to the LIA glacier extents. The total glacier area retreated from 1855.60 km2 during the LIA to 1368.13 km2 in the present (2023). Since the LIA, 26.27% (487.47 km2) of the glacier area has retreated. However, the rate of glacier retreat varies spatially among the sub-basins of the Chandrabhaga basin. As glacier vacated almost 24.66% and 31.69% in the Chandra and Bhaga sub-basins of the upper Chandrabhaga up to Tandi, 26.87% in the lower Chandra Bhaga basin between Tandi and Udaipur and 20.93% in Miyar sub basin which confluence at Udaipur from right flank down the valley. The total number of glaciers has increased from 574 during the LIA to 1011 at present, which is a result of bifurcation of tributary glaciers from main trunk glaciers due to increased warming and reduced precipitation in the region. As increased temperatures trend is reflected in the ten stations (TerraClimate gridded data) of the region. The temperature minimum (Tmin) and temperature maximum (Tmax) increased by 0.03°C/year and 0.01°C/year respectively and with a total shift of 0.77 ± 0.24 °Cbetween 1958 and 2024. Whereas, the total annual precipitation of 67 years (1958 - 2024) suggests a reduction of ~1.80 mm/year, indicating conditions for the negative glacier budget reflected through retreat. The retreating trend further reflected in the equilibrium line altitude (ELA). Based on the Toe-to-headwall altitude ratio (THAR), ELA indicates an upward shift from 5162 m during LIA to 5277 m during 2023, with a rise of 116 ± 35 m (2.24%) since LIA.
Keywords: ELA, glacier dynamics, Lahaul Himalaya, Little Ice Age, TerraClimate
Received: 23 Aug 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Saini, Bhagat, Mohd and Mankotia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Rakesh Saini
Ganga Sagar Bhagat
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