After Sikkim, snow has now covered Sandakphu, the highest peak in West Bengal. Heavy hail fell on Wednesday morning at the 3,636-metre summit and snow began in the afternoon. On the same day hail in parts of the plains raised fears of extensive damage to paddy and tea gardens, the Kolkata daily Sangbad Pratidin reports.
The worst damage is feared in the Rajganj block and Gajoldoba area of Jalpaiguri district and in the Majherdabri Muslim char area of the Kumargram block in Alipurduar. Large hailstones turned crop fields white, and many houses are reported to have had holes punched in their roofs.
Hail also fell at Kurseong, Sevoke and Kharibari in Darjeeling district, and in Sikkim and Bhutan, with heavy hail at Yuksom and elsewhere in Sikkim. In the Dooars, heavy hail disrupted daily life at Jaigaon on the Bhutan border and at Phuentsholing across it.
After the hail, the daytime temperature at Sandakphu fell to 10 degrees Celsius. When it dropped below freezing in the afternoon the snow began, and oxygen levels in the air fell. Repeated bursts of hail from the morning had already whitened Sandakphu and Phalut, and many tourists mistook it for snow.
Darjeeling and Kalimpong towns had moderate rain. The Darjeeling hills recorded 2.5 millimetres, and the temperature fell to 12 degrees Celsius by 4 pm. Snow also began on Jawaharlal Nehru Road near the Nathu La pass on the China border, and snowfall was reported from north Sikkim.
Citing India's weather office, the paper said twin cyclonic circulations had formed over south-eastern Bangladesh and north-eastern Bihar, bringing Wednesday's rain and hail to the hills and plains of north Bengal. Light to moderate rain had already been forecast for Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Malda. The report is by Subhankar Patra of Sangbad Pratidin.
Photo: Sujoy Saha / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Sangbad Pratidin
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