Snowfall in Kashmir Valley disrupts life - air, road traffic affected

Life in Kashmir Valley continues to be disrupted because of heavy snowfall that has blocked the Srinagar-Jammu highway for the third consecutive day. The rail service between the valley and Bannihal town in the Jammu region is expected to be resumed after track clearance.
In addition, air and road traffic continued to remain shut - there were no flights to and from the Srinagar International Airport in the morning for the second consecutive day.
This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 8 January 2017.

Authorities at Srinagar airport have indicated that if the visibility improved on Sunday morning, flight operations could resume in the afternoon. Simultaneously, snow clearance operations in Bannihal and Patnitop sectors of the highway have also started and travelers need to contact control rooms in Jammu and Srinagar to know the latest status of the roads.
The inter-district road connectivity has been restored in the valley after snow clearance operations and snow has also been cleared from all the main traffic arteries in Srinagar city. However, lanes and by-lanes in the old city were still impassable due to accumulated snow.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Ice lingam of Amarnath cave has melted much before time - thousands of pilgrims disappointed

The journey to the cave temple in Amarnath to get a darshan of the ice lingam of Lord Shivais an annual event - it starts on July 02 and is supposed to conclude on August 18, the day of Raksha Bandhan. But, this year, the huge lingam has melted away much before time, 34 days before the end. This has come as a heartbreak for the Amarnath pilgrims who have yet to get a darshan. This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 15 July 2016.

As it is, this year's yatra was badly affected because of disturbances in the Kashmir valley. The annual Amarnath Yatra had already seen nearly 1,45,000 pilgrims having 'Darshan' of the deity inside the famous cave shrine situated 3,888 metres above the sea level. However, the melting of the ice linga comes as a huge setback to those pilgrims who are still waiting to get the darshan. This is not the first time it has happened and the reason is attributable to the rise in temperature of the surroundings due to assemblage of so many people, burning of joss sticks, arrival of people by choppers etecetera.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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