Evaluating patterns of temporal glacier changes in Greater Himalayan Range, Jammu & Kashmir, India

To account for the variable response of the Himalayan glaciers towards climatic warming during the recent past, an attempt has been made in the present study to evaluate the changes in glacier area and shift in glacier snout position of selected glaciers in a part of the Greater Himalayan Range (GHR), Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), India. Multi-temporal satellite images of different years viz. 1975, 1989, 1992, 2001 and 2007 were used for mapping the boundaries of glaciers. Among the three observation periods (1975-1989/1992, 1989/1992-2001 and 2001-2007), during 1989/1992-2001 the majority of the glaciers exhibited considerable decrease in area. In contrast during 2001-2007, some glaciers exhibited increase in area indicating comparatively cooler climatic conditions as compared to the previous period. With reference to snout retreat, all the glaciers had a fluctuating trend of retreat during the observation periods although the retreat rate was higher during 1989/1992-2001 in some glaciers.