Uttarakhand: Heavy snowfall disrupts normal life; many areas cut off from the rest of the world

The hilly areas of Uttarakhand have been witnessing heavy snowfall over the past two days, which has brought life to a standstill here. Key highways remained blocked, and both water and power supply were disrupted due to the current weather conditions.

It is not just the hills, the plains also received light to heavy rainfall, which further brought down the temperatures. As per the reports, there are many areas and villages that are still cut off from the rest of the country, with higher areas receiving more than 6 ft snowfall. Records state that most of the areas have witnessed such snowfall after many years.
More than 400 villages and 100 connecting roads have been affected and are still blocked due to heavy snowfall. Roads to Char Dham are also blocked as the shrines are, reportedly, covered with a 10 - 12 ft snow blanket. The worst affected area is Chamoli district, which is followed by Rudraprayag, Tehri, Pauri, in Uttarkashi district, and 25 areas in Dehradun.
While districts of Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, and Pithoragarh received more than 6 ft of snowfall in Badrinath, Kedarnath, and Munsiyari, regions like Champawat, Nainital, Mussoorie, and Mukteshwar were followed by 1 - 3 ft of snow. The state government officials, referring to this situation, stated that relief measures are being implemented, and efforts are being made to restore communication along with water and power.
Further, a spokesperson from the state government also mentioned that the teams of state disaster management force, public works department, electricity and Jal Sansthan are working in coordination to restore normalcy soon.

The tourism industry is, however, hopeful that snowfall is likely to result in increased tourist traffic to popular destinations such as Mukteshwar, Nainital, Harshil, Mussoorie, and other places.