The fourth World Snow Day was commemorated at winter sports destination Auli in the absence of officials of the Winter Games Federation of India and Winter Games Federation of Uttarakhand here on Sunday.The efforts undertaken so far have helped establish an international identity for Auli as a winter sports destination but the seriousness with which the WGFI and WGFU treat this destination was evident on Sunday. The senior officials of these federations were absent for the programme organised here on Sunday to commemorate the World Snow Day.
In order to encourage skiing and other winter sports, the International Ski Federation (FIS) organises the World Snow Day every year on January 18. Considering the importance of Auli as a winter sports destination in Uttarakhand, the first World Snow Day was also organised here during the South Asian Federation winter games in 2010-11.
However, this year, such was the level of organisation of this event at Auli that in addition to officials of the Tourism Department, none of the officials in other departments and bodies concerned seemed to be even aware of the event. The locals point out that while officials of Government departments concerned and the winter games federations talk a lot about encouraging winter sports and destinations like Auli, their absence from the World Snow Day programme contrasted with their official stance.
Only the local members of the Uttarakhand chapter of the WGFI played a role in organising the event here on Sunday. Federation member Vivek Panwar and Santosh Kunwar said that they had not received any information about the event from the federation. However, they came to know about the occasion from the FIS website and organised a small event on skiing at the last moment to commemorate the occasion. The tourists who reached Auli on Sunday were able to indulge in skiing and other recreational activities here free of cost.