Bara Shigri Glacier

About

·       Bara Shigri (literally "Great Glacier") is a glacier located in Lahaul & Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India.

·       It lies on the northern slopes of the main Pir Panjal Range of the Inner Himalayas.

·       It is almost 30-km long glacier, the second-longest glacier in the Himalayas after Gangotri.

·       It is the largest glacier in Himachal Pradesh.

·       Bara Shigri feeds the Chandra River which after its confluence at Tandi with the Bhaga River is known as Chandrabhaga or Chenab.

·       Across the Bara Shigri is another glacier known as Chhota Shigri. It is, as the name suggests, a comparatively smaller glacier.

·       A small deposit of antimony ore is known to exist near the Bara Shigri glacier. Making it one of the few reported occurrences of the strategic mineral in India.

·       The glacier was first   surveyed in 1906 by H. Walker and E.H. Pascoe of the Geologiaal Survey   of India. Daring 1955 the Geological Survey of India sponsored an   expedition to this glacier as part of the Indian programme for the   International Geophysical Year 1956-57, when a number of Himalayan   glaciers were examined and their snout position fixed.

Chhota Shigri Glacier The Chhota Shigri Glacier lies on the northern slope of the main ridge of the Pir Panjal Range of the inner Himalayas, east of the Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh. Total drainage area of Chhota Shigri Glacier stream is approximately 35 square kilometre. The glacier meltwater drains out in a single confined stream and meets the Chandra River. Lateral moraines are present all along the body of the glacier up to the accumulation zone. This glacier is one of the best recorded in terms of mass budget studies among the other glaciers in the entire Himalayan region. Since 2002, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi is monitoring the glaciers for its mass balance and different hydrological aspects on an annual basis.