The climate change of the twentieth century had an evident effect on glacier environments of the Himalaya. Temporal images of Indian Remote Sensing satellites provide an opportunity to monitor the recession of glacier and development of glacial lakes in the Himalayan cryosphere with a cost to time benefit ratio. The recession of Milam glacier and subsequent growth of a proglacial lake near the snout was analysed using Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2 data. The recession of 480 m during 2004 to 2011 and growth of 47 epiglacial ponds over Milam glacier shows the glacier is in a state of imbalance and losing the ice by downwasting.

The Himalaya are often referred to as the third pole of the Earth because they host the largest areal extent of glaciation outside the polar regions. Estimating the volume of these glaciers is challenging because the ice thickness of most of the glaciers is not accurately known. Depth profiling of the north-facing Hamtah and Parang glaciers was carried out using ground-penetrating radar surveys. The 6 km long Hamtah glacier and the 2.5 km long Parang glacier, with average widths of 350 and 250 m, respectively, are located in different U-shaped valleys. The depth of the ice–bedrock interface varied from 35 to 95 m in the Hamtah glacier and from 40 to 140 m in the Parang glacier. The valley profiles and ground-penetrating radar data were combined to obtain the volumes of the glaciers. The total volumes of ice in the Parang and Hamtah glaciers were estimated to be 0.179 and 0.375 km3, respectively. Shape analyses of different parts of these glaciers suggest that mathematical equations can be used to describe their sequential development. The retreat rates of the Parang and Hamtah glaciers were estimated to be 11.04 and 16.10 m a−1, respectively.

In this study, the changes in snout and area of Sonapani glacier located in Chandra river valley, Himachal Himalaya has been studied over a century from 1906 to 2016. The study used a Survey Map (1906), Corona KH4-B (1971), Landsat 5 TM (1989), Landsat 7 ETM+ (2000) and Google Earth (2016) data images. In order to validate the satellite data images and other field studies, field work was carried out during 2014 in this area. The Survey Map (SM) of the Glacier was prepared by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in 1906 and hence, demarcated its earliest snout position. Thus, the SM has been used as the base map for overall change detection studies. The study indicated a total glacier retreat of 1820 m at a rate of 16.5 ma−1 over a time period of century from 1906 to 2016. During the different time intervals, the SG has indicated variable recessional patterns. For instance, the glacier has retreated by 991 m at a rate of 15 ma−1 during 1906-1971, 202 m at a rate of 11.2 ma−1 during1971-1989, 31 m at a rate 2.8 ma−1 during 1989-2000 and 596 m at rate of 37.3 ma−1 during 2000-2016. During the recent time period from 2000 to 2016, the rate of recession has increased rapidly. Due to this rapid recession of the glacier a major tributary towards the lower left side has also detached from it. The glacier also indicated an area loss of 29.7% (6.85 km2) from 1906 (23.9 km2) to 2016 (17.09 km2).

Physico-chemical parameters of meltwater of 20 water samples from glaciers of Rongdo basin, Shyok valley are presented here. The concentration of cations and anions of the two valleys were found in the order Ca>Mg>Na>K and HCO3>SO4>Cl>NO3 respectively. Significant altitudinal variation was found in major ions as indicated by the increase of TDS of glacial melt and stream water samples downstream. Gibbs plot shows chemical weathering of the rock forming minerals as the main cause for contributing ions to the melt water. The dominant order of hydrogeochemical water types identified is Ca-HCO3, is due to the water rock interaction which leads to the easy dissolution of carbonate and silicate minerals. However, few glacial melt and stream water have the influence of precipitation and meltwater runoff on chemistry. The hot spring falls in Na-HCO3 type, a typical of deeper groundwater influenced by ion exchange processes. Scatter plots of HCO3+SO4 vs. Ca/Na Plot and Ca/Na vs. HCO3/Na clearly indicates that the weathering of carbonate and silicate play a dominant role on groundwater chemistry. Two chloro-alkaline indices indicate reverse exchange reaction between Na+, K+, Mg2+and Ca2+. The physical parameters and major ions are within the permissible concentrations as per WHO and BIS indicating water is good for drinking and domestic purposes. The groundwater is suitable for irrigation as per the quality parameters and plots including EC, sodium percent (Na%) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR).

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