Manang: Route to Tilicho, the highest altitude lake in the world, has been obstructed due to inclement weather conditions. Parts of Nepal have been witnessing heavy rainfall over the past couple of days; floods and landslides, triggered by heavy rainfall, have rendered scores dead and taken a toll on crops and properties across the country.
The vicinity of Tilicho Lake, which is located at an altitude of 4949 across the Annapurna range in Manang, has been seeing heavy snowfall while there has been persistent rainfall in the lower areas leading to the lake, including the base camp.
Moreover, the road section connecting Lamjung and Manang, the Besisahar-Chame road, is out of operation as well, also owing to heavy rainfall.
Ram Prasad Awasthi, senior hydrologist at Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said that the snowfall “can be considered the first snowfall of the season”.
“Active development of low pressure systems in Bay of Bengal at first and now in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has resulted in heavy snowfall comparatively earlier this year,” Awasthi told Nepal Live Today. Snowfall used to occur in this time of the year earlier too, albeit in a very less proportion, Awasthi said. “After 2009, it is the first that such a heavy and widespread snowfall occurred in Nepal.”
Raju Pradhananga, a climate expert at the department, said that while climate change may be one of the factors causing an unexpected and erratic change in weather pattern, it is hard to pin it down as the sole reason.
The weather conditions across the country will improve from tomorrow, October 21, according to Pradhananga.
Here are some photos taken by Nepal Live Today’s Praveen Dhakal on the route to Tilicho.
Prasun Sangroula contributed to this report.
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