Over the last few decades, many Himalayan glaciers have been losing substantial glacier mass in response to climate change and have been predicted to decline further over the next few decades. Decline in glacier mass eventually alter the local and regional hydrology in Himalaya by potential shift in discharge regime and also rapidly increase in the number and size of glacial lakes. Glacier meltwater contribution to river flows is scale dependent and varies considerably across the basin scale. Although no substantiated trends is observed in discharge for any basin in Himalaya, our studies on Chandra basin revealed a potential shift in discharge regime. The mean annual discharge has noticeably increased by 50 per cent during last five decades. Initially a decadal increment of summer discharge was limited to 3-13 per cent, however it was significantly enhanced during last two decades. Similarly an increased spring runoff potentially changed the hydrological behavior due to early water availability in the basin. Snowmelt is the predominant source of river discharge during the early ablation season, whereas ice melt reaches a maximum in the peak melt period in this basin. The runoff from the glacierised parts of the catchments is sensitive to temperature changes and 1
