Trans- and Tethyan Himalayan Rivers: In Reference to Ladakh and Lahaul-Spiti, NW Himalaya

The Himalayan system is a complex and young fold mountain chain, rightly known as the water tower of Asia. Trans-Himalaya and the Tethyan Himalaya consist of a mountainous region about 1,000 km long and 225 km wide in the center, narrowing to ~32 km width at the eastern and western ends toward the northwestern side of the Himalayan chain in the Indian territory. The rivers of the Trans- and Tethyan Himalayan terrains follow the fault lines (Indus Suture Zone, Karakorum Fault, Spiti fault) and have a tectonic/structural control. These rivers as of today are unpolluted and still away from the anthropogenic and economic impact. They have enough potential which has not been utilized properly perhaps because of its strategic location. Vast exposures of the Quaternary sediments (lacustrine and fluvial) along the Indus (Ladakh, J&K) and Spiti rivers (Lahaul-Spiti, HP) are helpful in generating data on landscape evolution, paleoclimate, tectonics, and earth surface processes.