The Nubra River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

in the

Nubra Valley Nubra, also called Dumra, is a historical region of Ladakh, India that is currently administered as a subdivision and a tehsil in the Leh district. Its inhabited areas form a tri-armed valley cut by the Nubra and Shyok rivers. Its Tibetan name ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu a ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It is a tributary of the

Shyok River The Shyok River is a tributary of the Indus River that flows through northern Ladakh and enters Gilgit–Baltistan, spanning some . The Shyok River originates at the Rimo Glacier, one of the tongues of Siachen Glacier. Its alignment is ver ...

(a part of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmi ...

system) and originates from the

Siachen Glacier The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas at about , just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends. At long, it is the longest glacier in the Kara ...

, the second-longest non-polar glacier in the world. In earlier Tibetan maps, it was referred as Yarma Tsangpo.

Geography

The

terminates in a snout located at around and two pro-glacial melt-water streams originate out of two ice caves in the region. They merge about one kilometer downstream and becomes the Nubra river. Numerous other glaciers of the Karakoram descend into Nubra. It then flows between the Karakoram range and the Saltoro Mountains in a general southeasterly direction for about before its confluence with the Shyok River near Diskit, forming the

. The side valleys of the Nubra Valley contains some 33 glaciers of varying proportions, and the heavy sediment load carried by the river from the melt-water is responsible for many glacio-fluvial deposits including braided channels,

outwash plain An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and c ...

s and

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

s. The valley has been formed by ancient glaciers, now long receded, and has an average elevation of above sea level. The area has a very arid climate, and the lack of precipitation and the high elevation means that the upper reaches of the valley are nearly devoid of vegetation. At its junction with the Shyok, the sandy flats support patches of '' Tamarix'' and ''

Myricaria ''Myricaria'' is a genus of flowering plants of the family Tamaricaceae, native to Eurasia. Species Species considered valid by The Plant List The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic G ...

''. There are small villages at the foot of ravines, where

poplars ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The w ...

and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

trees grow. Small pasture fields have been enclosed on the un-denuded fans and fruit trees are grown.

Siachen Conflict

The river was rafted by an Indo-German team in 1978 under the leadership of Narendra Kumar. Certain features in the maps used by the Germans led to India's understanding of cartographic aggression by Pakistan and a subsequent mountaineering reconnaissance expedition of the region was planned; which in turn led to

Operation Meghdoot Operation Meghdoot ( "Operation Cloud Messenger" after a famous Sanskrit poem by Kalidasa) was the codename for the Indian Armed Forces' operation to seize control of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir, precipitating the Siachen conflict. E ...

Ecological crisis

The Siachen Glacier, the source of the Nubra River, has for some time been the scene of conflict between India and Pakistan, and has been called the world's highest battleground. The 20,000 troops stationed on the glacier produce a lot of waste, 40% of which is plastic and metal. This debris, including irreparable vehicles, war debris, parachute material, canisters, clothing, and human waste, is simply tipped into

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid p ...

s in the glacier. With no natural

biodegradation Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegra ...

taking place, the ice is being permanently contaminated by toxins such as

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12 element, group 12, zinc and mercury (element), mercury. Li ...

, and

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hard ...

. The washing of warfare clothes at hot sulfur springs near the Indian base camp also contaminates the river. The toxins will eventually reach the

, with millions of downstream users potentially being impacted.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Tributaries of the Indus River Rivers of India Rivers of Ladakh Karakoram