Changing colors of the rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi at Devprayag

This week, I was at Devprayag . Once back, I was reading up further on the Prayags and this photo on Wikipedia caught my attention

Alaknanda is on the right and Bhagirathi is on the left. (Prayag means confluence, hence the prayag in the name Devprayag). The two join together to flow forward as the Ganga.

Below is the picture I took of the same spot

Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Ganga

Note any differences?

Yes, in the Wikipedia picture, the Alaknanda is all muddy and the Bhagirathi is clear, while in my picture, it is the Bhagirathi which is muddy, while the Alaknanda is clear waters.

The picture at Wikipedia was taken in March – in summer, before the onset of the monsoons. My picture was taken in November, after the monsoons (in fact after one of the strongest monsoons in the region). The Wikipedia picture was taken in 2001 and mine nine years later, in 2010.

Is it just the change of seasons, or has the nature of the two rivers changed over time?

A search for images of Devaprayag yields a mix and it seems that the color of the waters in both the rivers continuously swings back and forth with the change of seasons.