Early winter and fresh snowfall in high reaches intensified the cold wave conditions in the state and were hampering the search and rescue operations to trace five missing trekkers belonging to Kolkata, Uttarakhand and Mumbai who were trapped in the heavy snowstorm in Kinnaur district recently, district administration said.
The Met Office said Gondla and Keylong in Lahaul Spiti recorded four and three cm snow Wednesday.
There is information of fresh spell of Snowfall in high reaches of Lahaul- Spiti at, 13050 ft high Rohtang Pass, Kunzum Pass, Baralacha, Lady of Keylong, Sapatrishi and Goshal hills, Shikaridevi of Mandi, Malana, Jalorijot and high reaches of Bhuntar and Manali, Dhauladhar ranges of Kangra, Sachpass, Manimehash, high reaches of Bharmour and Pangi in Chamba, Kinner Kailash of Kinnuar, High reaches of Dodra and Kawar of Shimla in last 24 hrs. It would be mainly dry to partly cloudy on Wednesday .
Deputy commissioner Kinnaur Apoorva Devgan said five trekkers were missing in snowy passes of the district and they couldn’t be evacuated owing to heavy snowfall recently and in the last 24 hrs.
Three trekkers died while trekking to Sangla of Kinnuar district from Janglik of Rohru subdivision as they got trapped in snow blizzard on October 24.
The deceased are identified as Deepak Rau(58) son of Narayan Rau, Rajinder Bhal Chander Pathak( 65)
son of Bal Chander Pathak and Ashok Madhukar (64) son of Madhukar.
DC said ITBP and police rescue team was sent a
gain today to evacuate the deceased trekkers, however, inclement weather subsequent to mishap was hampering the risky rescue operation.
Light rain lashed few places in the state as tourist Manali in Kullu had ten mm rain, Kothi 9.6 mm and Udaipur 3.8 mm.
Minimum temperature was two to three degree below normal as Keylong was coldest in the state at minus 1.7 degree Celsius, Kalpa in Kinnuar 1.4 degrees, tourist resort Kufri 7.3 degrees, Manali five degrees, , Dalhousie 7.5 degrees
Shimla 8.5 degrees, Solan ten degrees, Sundernagar in Mandi 11 degrees, Bhuntar in Kullu 10 degrees
Palampur 9.4 degrees, Hamirpur 11.7 degrees and Chamba 11 degrees.
Minimum temperature of Dharmshala was 9.8 degrees, Kangra and Mandi 12.9 degrees each, Bilaspur 15 degrees, Una 12. 8 degrees and Nahan in Sirmaur 15.6 degrees respectively.
The inclement weather along with heavy rain, snowfall and thunderstorm kept the normal life out of gear as 41 roads( 39 link and two NH) are snowbound and power supply disrupted due to heavy rain and thunderstorm 57 areas mostly in Laual Spiti, Pangi, Manali and Kullu.
Deputy Commissioner Lahaul Spiti Mr Neeraj Kumar said Manali-Leh National highway no 3 is snowbound between Darcha to Sarchu and National Highway No 505 is blocked from Gramphu to Losar.
Land slides disrupted vehicular traffic at Tonidevi in Hamirpur district after a landslide.
The Met Office forecast mainly dry weather in next 24 hours.