Dehradun experienced the coldest day of the season on Thursday with the mercury plummeting to 3.6 degree Celsius. It might dip further in the coming 48 hours. Tehri and Mussoorie too shivered on Thursday with the mercury dipping to near-zero degree Celsius. The minimum temperature was recorded sub-zero (-2.4 deg C) in Mukteshwar and 0.2 deg C in Tehri. The temperature plunged to 2.3 deg C in Pantnagar also.
Stating this, Uttarakhand Meteorological Centre director Bikram Singh said on Thursday that the people would get no respite from the bone-chilling cold for the next two days, in the least. “Cold might be rather more chilling,” he warned. The mercury plunging by five notches below the normal across Uttarakhand, the people are left to face the freezing cold. One finds the only relief from the bone- biting cold in the sunlight during the day hours.
But the relief is proving short-lived as the sunlight weakens as the day progresses, robbing them of the only means to beat the chill. As the dusk descends things outside turn even worse. The people choose to either huddle together in the rooms, made a tad comfortable by electric heaters, or if they are outside they gather around fire to warm themselves. A 60-year old RS Bhatt from Dehradun said he had ceased going out for the morning
walks since the day the cold wave started. “The sun is giving light, but it is too weak to warm ourselves sufficiently. Sometimes, when the sun hides behind the cloud things turn almost intolerable. However, as I need to do some walking to keep myself fit I get out around the noon when the sun is at its best,” he said.
leave alone the common people, the policemen posted on night duty are facing the bitter cold. One of the cops who is now posted in a city-based police station said he was feeling pity for his brethren now working in the hilly regions. “They are suffering the cold and going on with their nocturnal errands. I can understand from my own experiences how difficult it is to do the night patrolling in the hilly terrain during this kind of freezing cold. However, they must be on their fullest guard as the miscreants take advantage of such weather conditions to go for burglaries or thefts,” he said.
Sohan Rana, a watchman doing duty at a hotel based in Dehradun, echoed the same sentiment, saying that he had suffered such hardships in the past. “I can understand their plight,” he added.