Climate change drives glacier retreat in Bhaga basin located in Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

This paper reports changes in different glaciers of Bhaga basin located in western Himalaya, from 1979 to 2017. Glacier boundaries were delineated through semi-automated approach using Landsat satellite imagery. The variation of glacier extent in different elevation zones, snout retreat and decadal changes are observed. Results show that the total area of glaciers was 238 km2 in 1979, which reduced to 230.8 km2 by 2017 (retreat rate 12 m yr−1). Glaciers at low elevation and smaller in size are retreating faster. Analysis of Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation data shows decreasing trend of annual precipitation (–2.724 mm yr−1, 1951–2015 and increasing trend of mean annual temperature (0.021° C yr−1). The statistical analysis using Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope tests, applied at different confidence interval demonstrates that climate change corresponds to deglaciation, and topography controls glacier recession in the basin