Tourists thrilled as Sandakphu wakes up to season’s 1st snowfall

TNN, DARJEELING: Darjeeling has so far missed its date with snow this year, but the upper reaches of Sandakphu woke up to a white Tuesday, when the village near the Indo-Nepalese border received the season’s first snowfall.

On December 7, Sandakphu and surroundings were covered in a thin sheet of hailstones that many mistook as snow. Tiger Hill above Jorebungalow also received hailstones at that time.

But on Tuesday morning, locals and tourists were equally thrilled to find the village at 3636m wrapped in a white blanket of snow, three inches deep. Even Phalut, situated above Sandakphu, and BK Bhanjyang, 3km below, also received snowfall. “This is my first experience of a snowfall. I have seen snow only in films. To feel it in reality is a dream come true,” said Ujjal Mullick, a resident of Howrah, employed with a national insurance company. “Initially, I was worried about health as I had heard that air in this area is thin and that makes it difficult to breathe for newcomers like us. But, I forgot everything when I got down to playing in the snow. It will be a memorable trip for me and my family.”

Mullick, along with a group of 14, including his neighbours, reached Sandakphu on Monday. “It was chilling at night. Around two in the morning, we saw snow drifting down. We were so excited that we immediately ran outside. We seemed like we were on the top of the world and it was the most serene and beautiful feeling. The next day, we had to trek a few kilometres before the vehicle we had hired could picked us up,” said Gaur Dutta, one of the group members.

The next morning, some tourists stayed back at Sandakphu, while others trekked till BK Bhanjyang, where their vehicles waited for them to return to lower levels. “We managed to bring down around 60 tourists from Sandakphu to Maneybhanjyang,” said Anil Tamang, coordinator of Singalila Land Rover Association (SLRA), over phone. “But in spite of the severe weather, around six vehicles went up to Sandakphu on Tuesday with enthusiautic tourists. Most went up to BK Bhanjyang and returned the same day.”

Even as snow continued to fall at Sandakphu, albeit with decreased density, the night temperature plunged to minus degrees. The mercury hovered around 2-3 degrees Celsius during the day. The effect was palpable at Darjeeling town and Tiger Hill, where the temperature stood at 2°C. “It has been drizzling since night. There was a brief spell of hailstones but it melted away. There was no snowfall,” said Pradeep Pradhan, manager of Pavilion at Tiger Hill, which had received snowfall earlier years.