The Gangotri Highway was closed, and district headquarters had no communication with the China border due to the snowfall in Uttarakhand, which exacerbate the situation

Dehradun, 20 Feb 2024: Due to snowfall in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, Gangotri Highway remained closed throughout the day from Sukki to Gangotri. Due to this, eight villages of Upala Taknaur along with Gangotri Dham and the international border are cut off from the district headquarters. In Harshil Valley, children reached school amidst snow.

There has been heavy snowfall in Gangotri and Yamunotri for the last three days. It rained in the low-lying areas on Tuesday and the cold wave continued. Santosh Semwal, the priest of Gangotri Dham, said that after the snowfall late on Monday night, about 1 to 1.5 feet of snow has accumulated in Gangotri Dham on Tuesday morning.

Due to snowfall in Harshil Valley, Gangotri Highway was closed from Sukki to Gangotri at 6 am on Tuesday. In such a situation, the vehicles coming here had to return. Machinery and laborers of Border Road Organization are busy to open the highway.

The highway could not be opened till late evening. Due to the closure of the highway, eight villages of Harshil Valley along with Gangotri Dham and the India-China international border are cut off from the district headquarters.

At the same time, about half a foot of snow has accumulated in Harshil. The students of Government Primary School, Sukki reached the school amidst snow in the valley. Where he offered morning prayers and reading amidst the biting cold.

At the same time, the weather will remain bad in the state on Wednesday also. The Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert of bad weather in Dehradun including Tehri, Pauri, Champawat, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar districts.