Snow struck? Check before you travel to high hills of Himachal

SHIMLA - For those of you itching to travel to Himachal Pradesh to enjoy the winter snow, here’s some advice - think again!

Chances are that your travel agent has conveniently forgotten to tell you that heavy snowfall also has a darker side - including bone-chilling temperatures, uncertain connectivity and a serious danger of spending days stranded on blocked roads.

“In most of the cases, we have noticed that tourists prefer to travel to the high hills during winter where snowfall is a constant threat. They are often allured by their travel agents that this is the right time and place to cherish snow-white winter. But the tourists must check the climatic conditions before travelling to these areas,” Director Tourism Arun Sharma told IANS.

He cited a recent case in which over 100 tourists, mostly from Kolkata, remained stranded in remote Kalpa town in Kinnaur district for more than two days due to heavy snow. The tourists, comprising eight children and four septuagenarians, were rescued Jan 1 after the road connectivity was restored.

“In this case too, the booking was done by a travel agent in Kalpa. Despite our warning, the tourists ventured into a place where even the locals start storing ration and wood for the winter from the middle of November,” Sharma added.

According to him, the tourists started making frantic calls to the chief minister’s offices in both Shimla and Kolkata after they were marooned.

West Bengal Civil Defence Minister Srikumar Mukherjee also contacted the Himachal Pradesh government to ensure necessary assistance is provided to the tourists.

Mukherjee blamed the tour operators for organising trips to areas where heavy snowfall was a constant threat.

In October last year, a 51-year old tourist from West Bengal, Debyani Chowdhury, died on her way back to safety after being trapped in snow in Kalpa.

Likewise in September last year, many tourists from West Bengal remained stranded for five days in the Sangla Valley in Kinnaur after incessant rainfall triggered massive landslides.

Most of them were later airlifted by a state-run chopper.

Sharma said the state tourism department would soon hold a meeting with the tour operators of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata and ask them to act more responsibly by informing the tourists about the actual weather conditions.

“We are also going to release a travel advisory on the tourism department website and that will be updated regularly,” he added.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)