Baspa River rises near the Indo-Chinese border and forms the Baspa Valley (also known as the Sangla Valley) - one of the most scenic in

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

. The Chung Sakhago Pass lies at the

head of the valley The head of the valley or, less commonly, the valley head, refers to the uppermost part of a valley.Leser (2005), p. 935. Description The head of a valley may take widely differing forms; for example, in highland regions the valley often ends i ...

. It is fed by the perennial glaciers and shares the catchment area with the

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

. Baspa starts at the Baspa hills, joins Sutlej River from the left bank near Karcham. The upper and middle slopes of the valley along the river are covered with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

forests. Pastures, meadows and fields cover the lower slopes. Some of the most picturesque villages in the Himalayas can be found here. Only the lower half of the 95 kilometers length of the valley is inhabited - all the way from Chitkul (3,475 m) to where the Baspa meets the

Sutlej The Sutlej River or the Satluj River is a major river in Asia, flowing through China, India and Pakistan, and is the longest of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It is also known as ''Satadru''; and is the easternmost tributary of t ...

River at Karcham (1,830 m). Though gentle most of the way, it would be difficult to

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

in Baspa as some stretches have sheer falls.

References

{{Hydrography of Himachal Pradesh Rivers of Himachal Pradesh Geography of Kinnaur district Indus basin