One of the major tributaries of the Upper Indus is the Shyok River, which originates from the eastern Karakoram Range. Two other major rivers, namely the Nubra, originating from Siachen Glacier, and the Hushey, which flows from Masherbrum glacier in the Karakoram, feed the Shyok with melt water. The Zanskar River and Shingo River, both of which originate from the western ranges of the Greater Himalayas, nourish the main stem of the Indus, before its confluence with the Shyok. Downstream of the confluence of the Indus and the Shyok, the major rivers that contribute to the flows in the Indus are Shigar, carrying melt water from various glaciers in the central Karakoram; Hunza, carrying melt water from the western Karakoram; Gilgit/originating from the Hindu Kush; and Astore, originating from the Burzil Pass in the western extreme of the Greater Himalayas. Therefore, nine major watersheds constitute UIB (Figure 1). Table 2 provides the basic data on these watersheds, including the extents of glacial covers in these watersheds as determined from the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI Version 3.2; http://www.glims.org/RGI/; Pfeffer et al. 2014). Table 3 gives the hypsometric data for each of the watersheds.