It explores the understanding of the local controls on the retreat of glaciers of the Baspa valley in Himachal Pradesh. The geomorphic records mapped are accumulation zone, exposed ablation zone, moraine-covered ablation zone, snout, deglaciated valley, lateral moraine, medial moraine, terminal moraine and hanging glacier.

The details of these features and stages of deglaciation have been extracted from remote sensing data and mapped in a geographical information systems environment. Glacial geomorphic data have been generated for twenty two glaciers of the Baspa Valley. The retreat of glaciers has been estimated using the glacial maxima observed on satellite images.

Lateral Moraine, Billare Bange Glacier

On the basis of percentage of retreat and the critical analysis of glacial geomorphic data for these glaciers of the Baspa Valley, they are classified into seven categories of very low to very very high retreat. From the analysis of the above, it has been found that other than global warming, the retreat of glaciers of the Baspa Valley is inversely proportional to the size of the accumulation zone and the ratio of the moraine covered ablation to exposed ablation zone.

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