Four-month-old Bidya Gupta died in Gosaigaun, Nepalgunj-13 Thursday morning while Dilli Sunar, 45, of Sukasal, Bhimdutta-10, Kanchanpur died after passing out with hypothermia while buying groceries. He breathed his last at the Mahakali Zonal Hospital while undergoing treatment. He was returning home from New Delhi, where he worked.[break]
The bustling city of Nepalgunj has become quiet due to cold weather following snowfall in the mountains since the past week, reports our Nepalgunj correspondent Dinesh Gautam. Flights to Simikot in Humla have halted for the past four days due to snow on the runway.
“We have to wait for the snow to thaw before resuming flights to Simikot because the runway is not black-topped,” Senior ATS Officer at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Nepalgunj, Rajendra Singh Nayak, said. There are up to eight flights daily to Simikot from Nepalgunj and Surkhet.
Meanwhile, planes took off from Nepalgunj for different destinations Thursday despite poor visibility. There had been no flights on Tuesday and Wednesday. Likewsie, Talcha Airport of Mugu that was shut down for the past week has reopened since Wednesday.
Schools have seen low attendance due to fog and cold weather. Banke President of the National Private and Boarding School Association of Nepal (N-PABSON), which has 54 affiliate schools in the district, Kusum Ranabhat, said the schools would be closed from Sunday if weather didn´t improve.
Meanwhile cold weather has forced all schools in Saptari district to close, reports our correspondent Mithilesh Yadav. District Education Officer Shatrughna Prasad Yadav said the decision to give holidays was taken on the request of teachers after schools saw poor attendance due to the cold weather. Schools in Siraha district, however, have not been closed despite declining attendance.
Likewise, Suresh Yadav reports from Janakpur that cold wave has affected normal life in Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi and Siraha districts.
The markets in these districts wear a deserted look and shops start closing as early as six in the evening. District administration offices in these districts have made arrangements for bonfire at different places in villages and towns as there has been no sun for the past few days. Four people have died in Dhanusha and Mahottari districts due to cold wave during the past one week.
What is cold wave?
Cold-wave sweeps across Nepal´s Tarai region during foggy winter season when cold wind blows and temperature dips. According to Rajendra Shrestha, senior meteorologist at the department of hydrology and meteorology, the marginal difference between minimum and maximum temperatures causes severe cold.
As the cold wind blows, temperatures go down even during daytimes often resulting into deaths from hypothermia. Cold-waves usually hit the Tarai after rainfalls during winter. The Tarai has become foggier in recent times, as compared to the past years, due to air pollution resulting from the rapid industrialization in the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. With this, the frequency and severity of cold-waves have also gone up in recent years.
The Tarai region from Morang in the east to Kanchanpur in the west has lately been affected by cold-waves till 2 p.m. everyday. It has affected the western region more. As the region has seen less rainfall lately, the severity of cold-wave is expected to decrease in the days ahead.
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