Snowfall dilemma: Khelo India Winter Games face delay amid nature’s whims

Srinagar: As snow gives a miss to Kashmir this season, fourth edition of the Khelo India Winter Games in famous ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir, scheduled to be held from February 2 to 6, may be deferred by at least two to three weeks, much to the disappointment of athletes and organisers.

The event is being organised by the Sports Authority of India in collaboration with the Olympic Ad Hoc Committee for Ski and Snowboard India and the Winter Games Association (WSA) Jammu and Kashmir with support from the J&K government. The snow-covered landscape usually served as the perfect canvas for thrilling competitions and festive celebrations. However, this year a peculiar challenge loomed over the region – a shortage of snow.

The athletes, coaches, spectators and people associated with holding the event, accustomed to the enchanting white backdrop, anxiously await the announcement regarding the fate of games. WSA, J&K President Rauf Tramboo said that the games may be postponed to the third week of February. “There is no other alternative, but to reschedule the games as there is a forecast of almost no snow this month,” he told DH.

Tramboo rued that scant snowfall this season has hardly hit the livelihood of people associated with winter tourism. “People who had invested huge amounts in high end equipment for skiing and other winter sports are sitting idle. This season winter tourism is at its lowest and even tourists who come for leisure leave disappointed seeing no snow,” he added.
The social media timeline of Farhat Naik, celebrated Valley-based snowboarder and instructor, usually used to be full of enchanting pictures of the snowy wonderland of Gulmarg around this period of the year.

However, a string of pictures and videos he has put out this winter are testimony to how a prolonged dry spell has ravaged Kashmir. “These flowers used to bloom in April and May, but witnessing them bloom in January is shocking,” Naik posted on social media platform X.

Yusuf Jameel, a veteran journalist of Kashmir, while posting pictures of snowless landscape of Gulmarg, wrote on X: “I'm at Gulmarg at the moment & sad to see its slopes known as being the best for skiing & snowboarding are without snow even in the peak of winter. Exactly on this day in 2015, a snowfall here had ended a prolonged dry spell. May Allah answer our prayers and send us lots of snow.”