LETTER TO THE EDITOR

From
B. P. Banerji,
Accounts Officer.

Oil & Natural Gas Commission,
Shahjahanpur,
August 26, 1964.

The Editor,
Himalayan Journal,
Calcutta, India.

Real Source of the River Bhagirathi

Sir,

The source of the river Bhagirathi is reputed to be a point named Gaumukh (12,770 feet) at the snout of the great Gangotri Glacier system and regarded, apart from its being a place of immense beauty, as a venerable place of pilgrimage for the devout Hindus. The place is well marked and named in the Survey of India Map. But, while going through the map, one wonders if this point Gaumukh, as shown in the map, is the real source of the river. In the map (half inch sheet 53 N/NW first edition, 1940) this point is shown at the bottom of a steep snow slope 150 feet high. But some two miles beyond, towards the south-east, the stream is shown to reappear in the glacier and can be traced up to more than two miles in the north-eastern direction ending in a similar steep snow slope 150 feet high at the snout of the Raktvarn Glacier, a feeder of the main system. The height of this point is shown as 14,760 feet and beyond this no feature of the stream can be traced.

In Gaumukh the river Bhagirathi is seen to be coming out from a big hole under the steep snow slope in the form of a full-fledged gushing stream, suggesting the existence of some subterranean passage. It seems that the two streams have some underground link. The Survey of India authorities, however, in a letter, intimated the point 12,770 feet as the source of Bhagirathi.

As some of us assume the point 14,760 feet to be the true source of the river, I would like some light to be thrown upon this point by anyone who knows, as I am not aware if someone has visited this place in the Raktvarn Glacier.

Yours sincerely,
B. P. Banerji,
Hon. Assistant Secretary,
Bengal Tourist Association, Calcutta.
Member, The Himalayan Club, Calcutta,
and
The Himalayan Association, Calcutta.
Calcutta address:
41 /1C Russa Road,
Calcutta 33.

⇑ Top