Snow less New Year disappoint revellers at Munsiyari
Snow less New Year disappoint revellers at Munsiyari
B.D. Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, Jan 1
Most of the New Year revellers and tourists who reached Munsiyari, the snow city, to watch snow deposits on the Himalayan peaks, visible from here, had to return disappointed as the high Himalayan peaks are without any snow this year as the last snowfall in Munsiyari did happened in October last year.
“The tourists in Munsiyari, known for snowy peaks of Panchachuli, comes to watch snow in surrounding peaks or in the town in this season of Christmas and New Year, but due to only a thin layer of snow even on the majestic Panchachulu peaks, several of them returned disappointed this year,” said Puran Pandey, a tourist facility owner in Munsiyari.
“Despite no snowfall situation, we witnessed a total of 415 tourists visited Khalia top ridge on December 31st ,”said Pandey
Due to non-availability of expected snowfall, the snow loving tourists are avoiding the hills and more rowdy type of visitors are reaching the Munsiyari.”We are now preparing to deal with such tourists that we never catered to in the past,”said Pandey.
“The weather pattern is slowly changing in Munsiyari, as a new symptom of this changing trend, the fog has started engulfing the valleys from last 10 years, we used to witness no fog in these days since our childhood,” said Pandey.
In Chaukori village of Berinag, another tourists spot in the district from where Himalayan peaks are visible, bright and clear, the tourists have returned disappointed due to absence of snow on the peaks.
“From December 24 to first January 2026, we catered over 7000 tourists in Chaukori this year, that Data used to be at 10000 during same period in snowfall rich years in the past,”said Sudheer Rathod, a tourist facility owner in Berinag.
“It is due to several climatic and geological reasons, the weather in Himalayan region is changing from last several years as we are witnessing flora and fauna of hilly region moving towards higher reaches to survive as snow and rains has gone erratic,” said Dhirendra Joshi, Livelihood project director and a keen watcher of Himalayan climate from last 20 years.
