Second winter snow in Nepal grounds planes
For the past five days, Tsamcho Gurung and her friends have been waiting for flight out of Jufal airfield in Dolpo to go down to Nepalgunj and then Kathmandu. Early snowfall this year, and another winter storm on Friday means there is no chance of a flight for the next few days.
Having spent all her money waiting at a lodge near the airfield in Jufal, Gurung has now decided to return to her home in Saldang. But she may not be able to make it back home either because heavy snow has covered the high passes.
Nepal’s mountains and the trans-Himalayan districts of Mugu, Dolpo, Mustang and Manang experienced snow much earlier than usual in December, and another heavy snowfall now. It has caught many local people unprepared.
Usually, the people of Upper Dolpo like Tsamcho Gurung travel to the lower valleys for the winter. But this year, since the snow came early, many have been stranded.
Karma Dolma and her parents are planning to spend the winter in Kathmandu going on a pilgrimage to Buddhist shrines like Bodhnath, and while there get a health checkup. Dolma made it across the Kangla and Shey-La passes withi great difficulty in waist-high snow only to find out in Jufal that there have been no flights because of bad weather.
“Crossing the passes is easier than waiting here at the airport,” Doplma says. “The uncertainty is killing us. We could try to hire a jeep, but it takes several days and the roads are treacherous.”
Aishwarya Rokaya has a Tara Air ticket to Nepalganj where she needs to get admitted to hospital for a stomach ailment, but says she has had enough of waiting. “If the plane doesn’t come tomorrow we have no choice but to go back home day there is not flight. What to do. I am sure the pain will get worse.”
Students from Crystal Mountain School in Dho walked for four days across snowbound passes to get to the airport, and have now been waiting for three days. This is the annual winter migration of people from Upper Dolpo, and the children use the winter break to descend to warmer climes.
At the airline counter in the airport, there is a chaos every morning with no information from airline staff. Passengers on mobiles try to contact relatives in Nepalganj to ask about the weather and if the plane has taken off.
“The weather is unpredictable here in Dolpo, but we cannot control the clouds,” says the Tara Air manager here. “If it clears up we can make up to two flights, but there is a big backlog of people who have been waiting for many days.”
Dolpo is served only by Tara and Sita Air, and both airlines have not operated here for nearly a week now. The shortage of flights means there is a thriving black market in tickets, and distributors who own lodges give priority for their guests by asking for an extra fee.
The last flight out from Jufal airfield in Dolpo was on 29 December. With heavy snowfall on Friday, it is unlikely flights will resume any time soon.