Sediments from Bakhira Lake can help water resource management in the Central Ganga Plain

Researchers at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences investigated magnetic minerals in sediments from Bakhira Lake in Sant Kabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, to track past climate changes and Indian Summer Monsoon variability over the past 25,000 years. Bakhira Lake, a Ramsar Site, sits within the Ghaghara–Rapti alluvial system. By combining environmental magnetic measurements with grain-size, geochemical, and clay mineralogical data, the study reconstructed major climatic phases including the Last Glacial Maximum, Heinrich Stadial 1, Bølling–Allerød, Younger Dryas, Holocene Climatic Optimum, and late Holocene droughts. The resulting dataset aims to provide baseline information for improving climate models, predicting future monsoon behavior, and supporting water-resource management, agriculture, and flood and drought mitigation in the Central Ganga Plain.