Climate Shift Alters Ganga Headwaters

In the icy heights of the central Himalaya, the Gangotri Glacier System (GGS) has for centuries fed the Bhagirathi, the headstream of the Ganga, India's most iconic and culturally revered river. Now, new research shows how climate change is quietly but profoundly reshaping the flow of meltwater that sustains the river at its source—with consequences that could ripple far downstream.

- S V Krishna Chaitanya @ Chennai

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Indore and partner institutions has reconstructed four decades of discharge from the GGS, offering the clearest picture yet of how snow, glacier ice, rainfall, and groundwater each contribute to the river's flow, and how these proportions have shifted under a warming climate.