Darjeeling gets seasons first snowfall

Brinda Biswas, SNS, Darjeeling, 17 December 2014: Tiger Hill, the popular tourist haunt located 11 km away from Darjeeling town and at an altitude of 8482 feet, witnessed moderate snowfall today, making it the season’s first spell.

Places like Nathula, Changu Lake, Meghma, Sandakphu, Phalut and Tonglu in North Sikkim also received heavy snowfall, resulting in a severe cold wave sweeping the region.More than 2000 tourists who had gone to see the majestic sunrise from Tiger Hill failed to see the sun rise today, but they returned with gleeful smiles on their faces after experiencing the snowfall.

The snowfall was followed by icy-cold winds and sleet, and the result was obvious, a steep fall in the temperature from -2 to 0 degree C respectively. “It snowed for around 30 minutes, from 4:15 am to quarter to 5am in the morning,” said the manager of the Tiger Hill Pavilion, Pradip Lama. “This was the first snowfall in Tiger Hill this season,” he added. Mr Lama also said that since it was a moderate snow, snow could not accumulate much.When asked, a tourist, Chetna Rai, said “today was a memorable day for me.”

“It was a little disheartening for us in the beginning as we could not get a glimpse of the sunrise, but the experience of the snow made me happy 10-fold and we completely forgot about the sun-rise,” she added.

Another tourist, Ashwyn Kharel, said: “It was freezing cold. I could not even capture photos properly.” “But I did enjoy,” he added.

While it rained in the morning, the weather was warm as the sun came out brightly in Darjeeling later in the afternoon. “The view of the Kanchanjunga from Darjeeling was as beautiful as the day itself,” one tourist said.