New Delhi, Sep 10 - The Ganga river, often called India's cultural and spiritual lifeline, will open up its thousand-year-old channel to a 2,500-km Ganga expedition led by renowned Swiss adventurer Andy Leeman Sep 14.

Leeman and his crew will draw attention to the condition of the river in context of global warming, receding glaciers, pollution and sustainable development of life along its banks and eco-tourism.

The crew will include climatologist Mohan Munasinghe of the Green Cross International, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming and sustainable development as the vice-chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and several professional photographers, docu-filmmakers and scientists.

Announcing the expedition, of the biggest of its kind, in the capital, Mohan Munasinghe said the expedition will help raise scientific awareness about the impact that climate change will have on the river.

'Coping with the water stress will be a central challenge in the years to come,' he told the media in the capital Thursday.

The 35-day expedition will begin at the source of the river at Gangotri, in the foothills of the Himalayas above Hardwar, and end Oct 19 near Kolkata where the river fans out into a delta to merge with the sea.

Munasinghe said seven of the world's largest rivers, including the Ganga, the Yamuna and Yangtze in China, originate in the Himalayas, supplying water to nearly 40 percent of the world's population.

The Ganga expedition is part of a project called, 'Rib Expedition & Adventure' in partnership with Kuoni (Travel) Group, Green Cross International and AB Inflatables. It will be supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), CPN Satellite ServicesPennel, Tag Heuer and Yatch Centre.

A Swiss non-profit centre, myclimate, 'has offsetted all carbon emissions caused by travel before, after and during the expedition,' the organisers said.

The funds from the carbon offsets will be channeled into an eco-friendly waste recyling project at Bali in Indonesia by Kuoni and myclimate.

'The expedition will draw attention to the environmental threats around the river, the cultural diversity and livelihoods along its banks, suggesting sustainable ways to develop them,' Swiss expedition leader Andy Leeman said.