Geomorphic records of paleoglacial activity from the upper reaches of Baspa Valley, H.P.

The landforms always withhold the imprints of characteristic geomorphic processes within it. In the upper reaches of Baspa valley, geomorphic records of glacial origin have been investigated for three glaciers viz., Shaune Garang glacier (North facing), Jorya Garang glacier (North facing) and Saro glacier (South facing). The field investigation was carried out for Shaune Garang glacier and extrapolated for Gor Garang and Saro glacier. This terrain is inaccessible and characterized by highly rugged and adverse climatic conditions. Visual interpretation technique of remote sensing is found to be accurate, economical and time saving, hence, the glacial landforms were mapped from Liss III + Pan merged data of IRS 1D, October 2001. The hanging valleys, terminal moraines and lateral moraines are found to be one of the important geomorphic indicators for reconstruction of paleo-glacial history of Baspa valley. The results show that maximum of three sets of lateral and terminal moraines have been identified in Shaune Garang glacier, Jorya garang shows three sets of terminal and two set of lateral moraine and Saro glacier shows one terminal moraine and two sets of lateral moraine indicating respective stages of deglaciation. The length of surface accumulation observed in above data of Oct, 2001 for Shaune Garang, Jorya Garang and Saro glacier is 3.75km, 11.6km and 1.17km respectively. Thus, it shows that south facing glaciers show minimum surface accumulation as compared to the north facing glacier and maximum three stages of deglaciation have been recorded in present study.