New Delhi: Sunday brought in a pleasant surprise in the form of an unseasonal snowfall to many areas in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir even as several parts of north India witnessed a sudden drop in temperature and cold wave conditions.
The higher reaches of Himalayan region of Chamoli district have been witnessing heavy snowfall and cold wave conditions that have sharply lowered the temperature and affected normal life.
According to the weather office, snowfall was being experienced in other parts of Uttarkashi, Tehri, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts of the state. It has been snowing near Haridwar as well as the mercury hovered below freezing point.
The cold wave has brought down the temparature considerably in almost all areas in the Indo-Tibetan Himalayan region, including Kedarnath, Badrinath, Barahotu, Rimkhim, Niti-pass, Dronagiri, Kamet, Mana-Pass, Nanda Devi, Hemkund, Chaukhamba, Rupkund on Friday and Sunday. It has also caused serious inconvenience to Badrinath and Kedarnath pilgrims, disrupting their movement to the holy shrines.
Snowfall was reported also in several high altitude areas in various degrees on Saturday bringing a sharp chill in Gangtok and other areas. Heavy snowfall occurred in Dzongri, West Sikkim and Yumthang of north Sikkim and about two feet snowfall has been reported from Nathula valley and Changu lake.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the world famous ski resort of Khilanmarg and all upper reaches in the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region
experienced fresh snowfall, resulting in considerable drop in the temperature.
However, the 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh national highway remained open despite light snowfall at Zojilla. Authorities have announced
to close the highway from October 31 for six months to avoid any tragedy due to early snowfall.
"It is snowing in Khilanmarg and Apharwat, the highest points of the cable car project in Gulmarg, besides other upper reaches," an official of the tourism department said. He said about six inches of snow have accumulated on the slopes at Khilanmarg and Apharwat since early this morning. However, Gulmarg was still waiting for the first snowfall of the season, he added.
While for the upper reaches of Kashmir and Sikkim, snowfall around this time of the year just ahead of the onset of winter is not very unusual, for areas like Haridwar and Tehri, the snowfall was a sort of a miracle. The snowfall is also likely to damage crops.
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