Baspa River rises near the Indo-Chinese border and forms the

Baspa Valley Baspa Valley is a river valley that is said to be named after the Baspa River. It lies in the Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh, India. Sangla is a major town in the Baspa Valley, and the valley is also known as the Sangla Valley or Tukpa Va ...

(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 planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

. 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 river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

. 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. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

and

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

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 Chhitkul is a village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. During winters, the place mostly remains covered with the snow and the inhabitants move to lower regions of Himachal. According to a recent study by Centre of Atmospheric Sciences ...

(3,475 m) to where the Baspa meets the

Sutlej The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...

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 barrel ...

in Baspa as some stretches have sheer falls.

References

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