Glaciers in India

A glacier is a well formed body of dense ice over a land surface, covering an area of 0.1 km² moving under its own gravity always, due to the accumulation of snow exceeding its melting and sublimation process over many years, even centuries.

Glaciers are found in almost 50 countries, which include Antarctica, Alaska, Canada, Chile,Iceland and Greenland, besides Australia and South Africa having them in distant island territories. In India, there are Glaciers are found in Himalayas in Karakorum region, Siachen Glacier known to be the second largest glacier next to those in polar region. There are 15 Glaciers in Jammu and Kashmir State, about 12 in Himachal Pradesh, 3 coming under Sikkim and about 12 in Uttarkhand.

Glaciers are different from Sea Ice and Lake Ice which are thinner and formed over water, while Glaciers are form only on land surface.

About Glaciers

Major river systems of India, Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra are fed by Himalayan Glaciers, which are grouped into four such as Punjab, Garhwal, Nepal and Assam groups.

Visiting Glaciers through trekking is one of very interesting adventure tourism activities. For instance,

• Gangotri Glacier, which is one of the largest glaciers of Himalaya, located in the Garhwal Himalayan Region of Uttarkhand State, has its snout called Gomukh, which produces water stream, Bhagirathi from an elevation of 4000 m, is a be