The beautiful glacial lakes of Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh, a mountainous state in the western Himalayas, is known for

its beautiful landscape, and is spread across 55673 sq. kilometre. It shares borders

with the states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, the Union Territories of Ladakh

and Jammu & Kashmir, and the Tibet Autonomous Region. The state has 12

districts, and is drained by many rivers such as the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi,

ChandraBhaga or Chenab, and the Yamuna. The north and eastern parts of the

state show alpine climate that harbour many glaciers and beautiful high-altitude

lakes. While Himachal Pradesh shows a wide range of climatic variation owing

to its unique geographical features, the regions situated at greater than 13000 feet

/4000 m above sea level remain covered with snow for most parts of the year.

The glaciers at these high-altitude areas create innumerable glacial lakes, and

these waterbodies form to be the source of many rivers in this region.

Owing to drastic climatic changes in the last 100 years, the glaciers in the

Himalaya have been considerably affected, owing to which, from the mid-19th

century many big glaciers started melting, forming innumerable glacial lakes.

Geographical records show that almost all Himalayan glaciers have been

retreating since 1400-1650 CE, a period often geographically termed as the Little

Ice Age.

The Himalayan glacier lakes are important natural resources, which are both

terrestrial and aquatic in form owing to their creation by land parts becoming
permanently filled with water. Often based on the inflow and outflow drainage

of a lake, when the water remains present for a long time in the same land the

lake slowly turns into a wetland. The Himalayan region is dotted with many such

wetlands. The glacier lakes in the Himalaya are of two types: moraine-dammed

lakes and ice-dammed lakes. When the end moraines of a glacier collect in front

of a natural glacier-fed stream the water gets stored to form a moraine-dammed

lake; on the other hand, when water gets impounded behind a wall of ice it forms

an ice-dammed lake. Both the glacial lake types are often highly unstable and

have resulted in catastrophic floods.

Geographically the glacial lakes are known as tarns, and in the Himalaya such

tarns are most often found at or above 5500 m (16000 ft), and are fed by melting

snow, rain, and natural spring water. The tarns in Himachal Pradesh that lie in the

districts of Chamba, Kinnaur, and Lahaul and Spiti are mostly oligotrophic. These

high-altitude lakes in the Himachal Pradesh, besides being important

ecologically, also play significant roles as wildlife habitats and adventure tourism

spots. These wetland lakes are also popular places for the nomadic Gaddi

community to camp in, as these grounds act as pasture land for their herds of

goats and sheep.

Chandra Tal: also known as Chandratal Wetland (declared as a Ramsar site on

8th November 2005), this is among the most beautiful lakes of Himachal Pradesh.

A high-altitude lake (4270 m/14000 ft) with a wetland area of 49 ha, it is in the
upper Chandra valley that falls in the district of Lahul and Spiti, and its adjoining

glaciers form to be the source of the Chandra river. This natural lake, which is

shaped like a crescent moon, is around 1 km in length, ½ km in breadth (at the

widest part), with a circumference of 2.5 km. The lake is surrounded by the

mountain ranges known as ChandraBhaga and Moulkila, and is on a wide plain

grassland, which was once a glacier. This moraine dammed lake was created

owing to a blockage by glacial deposits, and the waters from the surrounding

glaciers are its source of water. Chandratal and its catchment area is mostly

characterized by a complete lack of trees (65 %), which were lost owing to glacial

activities. Rest 35% area are covered by many medicinal herbs and grasses, and

it is on these that the gaddis from Kulu and Kangra bring their herds to graze on

in the summer (June to September).

Suraj Tal: this is another beautiful high-altitude lake situated in a pristine

location of the state of Himachal Pradesh, and remains surrounded by snowy

peaks almost the year round. This lake also lies in the Lahul and Spiti valley, just

below the Bara-lacha-la (4,890m/16000 ft), and is the source of the Bhaga River.

The Bhaga river flows down to meet the Chandra river at Tandipule, and together

they form the well-known river known as ChandraBhaga or Chenab. The

shimmering blue waters of this lake receives it feed from the various surrounding

glaciers and streams that originate in the Bara-lacha-la. The Bara-lacha-la is an 8

and Spiti, Ladakh, and Zanskar all meet here.

Travel tips: Chandratal can be reached from Batal that is around 120 Km from

Manali, via the Manali-Kaza Highway. One can also approach Chandertal via

Kunjam La, the pass that connects Spiti with Lahul. Suraj Tal is around 65 km

from Keylong (district headquarters of Lahul-Spiti), which is approached by

the Leh-Manali Highway. Both the lakes are accessible to tourists between June

to September, and one must take care as these high-altitude places show low

oxygen content, which may cause Acute Mountain Sickness (AMA).