Normal life came to a grinding halt in Kashmir following the season’s first blanket snowfall that triggered road blockades and power outages forcing people to resort to traditional methods to fight the bone-chilling cold wave.
The early snowfall caught the Governor’s administration unaware and unprepared while the orchardists in south Kashmir region and saffron growers in Pampore in the outskirts of Srinagar apprehend huge economic losses. The rare November snowfall has occurred third time in past 18 years, a MET official said. The weather is likely to improve from Monday.
He said Srinagar registered a minimum temperature of minus 1 degree Celsius, down from the previous night. Qazigund, the gateway town to the Valley, recorded 11 degree Celsius, compared to 16 degree Celsius on Friday.
The strategic 434-km Srinagar-Leh highway remained closed due to the heavy snowfall for the third consecutive day as 3 feet thick layer of snow has accumulated across Zoji La pass. The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was also closed for vehicular traffic even as the authorities tried hard to keep it through for the passage of Durbar Move employees. The government offices are re-opening in winter capital Jammu on Monday, 10 days after they were closed in Srinagar on October 26.
The freaky weather has caused anguish among thousands of students writing their examinations for tenth and twelfth classes.
Orchardists from southern and northern parts of Kashmir said that the sudden change in weather pattern has potential to harm them economically. “The full apple crop has not been harvested. Some fruit is still on trees and the plucked harvest is in the process of grading and packaging,” Murtaza Ahmad, an orchardist said.