Bajura, January 18

Heavy snowfall occurred for the third time this year in the high hills and mountains of Sudurpaschim and Karnali provinces.

Life has been adversely affected due to snowfall in the areas. Locals said snowfall this year was the heaviest in the past two decades.

A local at Budhinanda Municipality, Dabal Rokaya, 75, said snowfall occurred once or twice a year in the past. “But snowfall this year has occurred three times already during one-and-a-half months of the winter season,” he said.

Ward Chairman Jagat Bahadur Lama in Himali Rural Municipality-3 said frequent snowfall has hit life hard in Bajura. “Snow has covered the road and people cannot walk outside their houses as thick layer of snow has covered the roads,” he added. He said he saw such heavy snowfall for the first time in his life. He further said it was very difficult to move from one place to another and some of the villages were out of contact.

Regular air services from Nepalgunj to Bajura, Jumla, Humla, Dolpa and Mugu, among other places, have also been affected due to snowfall.

Local transport service in the high hills and mountainous areas have also been obstructed for a month.

A local at Budhinanda Municipality Dawa Gurung said Martadi-Kolti road section has been closed for the past one month. He said both air service and vehicular services have been closed.

Following excessive cold, some residents of the high hills have descended to lowlands to escape the cold. Education institutions in the mountainous areas have been closed due to the bone-chilling cold.

Bajura District Education Coordination Officer Gopal Datta Joshi said excessive cold has badly affected teaching-learning activities at schools.

“While on the one hand, the schools in the district lack physical infrastructure, on the other, the bone-chilling cold has created problems in carrying out daily teaching and learning activities,” he said.

Similarly, excessive cold has affected daily life in Bajhang and Darchula.

Locals at Kanda Rural Municipality of Bajhang said the bone-chilling cold had affected life.

Due to the cold, teaching-learning activities have also been affected in the rural municipality. Health facilities in Humla, Jumla, Mugu and Kalikot of Karnali Province have witnessed increase in the number of patients suffering from cold related diseases.