Leh, Kargil freeze, cold wave sweeps Srinagar

“The minimum temperature in Srinagar city was minus 5 degrees Celsius Monday. It was 3 degrees less than normal. The minimum temperature was minus 13.6 degrees in Leh town, minus 10.6 in Kargil, minus 6.6 in Pahalgam and minus 6 in Gulmarg,” M.S. Wani, assistant meteorologist at the weather office here.

“As the cold and dry spell is likely to continue here for some days more, the minimum temperatures can fall further during the next two to three days.

“The cold wave conditions would continue till we have some precipitation here, but as of now, we do not foresee such a change in weather at least for the next two days,” he said.

Most wetlands have frozen here giving a tough time to thousands of migratory birds which spend the winter months in these wetlands of the valley.

Parts of Dal Lake in summer capital Srinagar had also frozen on Monday morning.
“Huge flocks of coots were battling frozen waters to manage some food for themselves in the middle of Dal Lake in the morning. Though the cold does not affect these birds directly, feeding becomes a problem when wetlands freeze,” said Nazir Ahmad, 33, a resident of Nishat area in Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the cold wave sweeping Kashmir Valley has claimed lives of three non-Kashmiri labourers, two of whom died due to asphyxiation at an under construction house at Srinagar Airport road on Monday.

Bodies of two masons Mohammad Anwar and Mohammad Aalam, both residents of Bihar, were recovered from the under construction house of Tariq Ahmad Sheikh at Gulberg colony Hyderpora on the outskirts of the city this morning, officials said. According to preliminary investigations, the two labourers died of asphyxiation as they forgot to put off the gas heater before going to sleep.

Another resident of Bihar, Suresh Kumar, who was working as a labourer at a cement factory, was found dead on the premises of the unit at Lasjan on the outskirts of Srinagar, they said.

Kumar had apparently died of cold, they said, adding further investigations are on.