Monitoring of Glacier Changes and Response Time in Chorabari Glacier, Central Himalaya, Garhwal, India

Chorabari Glacier (6.6 sq. km) in the Mandakini River basin, a tributary of the River Alaknanda, Central Himalaya, Garhwal (India) has been monitored in terms of its length and frontal area (snout) changes for the period between 1962 and 2012. Global Positioning System, Survey of India toposheet (1 : 50,000) and ground-based measurements were used to obtain the changes in morphology and size of the glacier. The result shows that the frontal area of the glacier has shrunk by 1% and 344 ± 24 m length loss, with an average rate of 6.8 ± 0.5 m a^-1 from 1962 to 2012. The observed terminus records of Chorabari Glacier indicate that the positive mass balance can cause terminus advance in about a 17-year timescale. The lag time of glacier signal transferred from accumulation area to the snout by glacier flow is about 562 years. These observations as well as other studies carried out in the region show a significant reduction in glacier area. The increased retreat rate of the glacier snout is probably a direct consequence of global warming.