After heavy snowfall, 70 from Barasat trapped in Himachal

After heavy snowfall in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district, around 70 persons from North 24 Parganas' Barasat have been rendered trapped.

Most of the people including women and children are trapped at Chitkul, a village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh which is the last inhabited village near the Indo-Sino border.

The tourists were out for sightseeing when a sudden snowfall trapped them.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) reached the spot to rescue the people after the Bengal government informed the matter to the concerned authority.

Some of the trapped tourists tried to return to the hotels but could not find their way and only a few could make their way back to the hotels.

They contacted the North 24 Parganas district administration for help which then informed the matter to state secretariat.

According to district administration sources, the trapped people faced various problems. The most significant problem was communicating with their relatives. Telephonic communications could not be made easily from there to Bengal as the heavy snowfall had probably cut all cellular networks.

"The people had gone for a trip to Himachal Pradesh from Barasat's Notunpalli, Kolupukur, Aswinipalli, Ashoknagar, Bira, Guma and some other places on March 29," said a relative of a tourist.

Amit Biswas, an Information Technology employee, a resident of Bira's Ballavpara who is among the ones who are trapped spoke to Millennium Post and said: "I am trapped along with my wife Nita and son Tanuj here. Some 30 ITBP jawans came to us some hours ago. They have assured us not to panic. They have also assured us to provide food. Now my only concern is to reach home safely."

"I can see that the jawans are presently removing snow with the earth-moving machineries," Biswas added.

"One Sukanta Sikdar, a resident of Barasat's Kolupur called up his relatives. But he informed them that no food was given to the trapped tourists. He also informed that at least 300 tourists were trapped at Chitkul. Seventy tourists among them are residents of North 24 Parganas. Sukanta informed us that there is no electricity connection and fuel is not available too," said a Barasat Municiplaity source.