Cold wave death toll reaches 31, general life badly affected.

Byline: ANI

New Delhi, Jan. 4 (ANI): The northern parts of the country are under a cold wave with the chilling conditions pushing the death toll to 31, as 25 cold-related more deaths have been reported in the region. The general life is badly affected especially in early morning and late evening. ll the deaths occurred since Friday evening in Uttar Pradesh where Kanpur remained the coldest at 5 degrees Celsius. Seven deaths were reported from Muzaffarnagar and Kanpur while four people died in Gorakhpur whereas and two each died in Lucknow, Mahoba, Santkabirnagar and Barabanki districts.

One death each was reported from Bahraich, Jaunpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Hardoi, Faizabad, Shahjahanpur.

In Punjab and Haryana, intense cold conditions prevailed with minimum temperature remaining about two degrees below normal. Amritsar was the coldest with a low of 1.8 degrees. Besides, Patiala, Ludhiana and Ambala shivered at 5.5 degrees followed by Bhiwani at 5 degrees.

Rohtak city settled at a low of 4.4 degrees, the minimum at Narnaul was three degrees. Chandigarh city recorded a low of 6.8 degrees, Hisar 6.4 degrees and Karnal 6.2 degrees.

In New Delhi, cold wave persisted with the minimum temperature settled at 5.4 degrees. A thick fog cover hit flight operations, delaying as many as 31 flights by over three hours at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and cancellation of 19 others on Saturday.

Train service has also been hit due to fog which hampered train movement and Northern Railway cancelled six trains from Delhi and announced the cancellation of another 13 trains from Sunday.

Meanwhile, the snowfall in higher areas of Himachal Pradesh intensified cold wave condition in the State. There has been report of snowfall from Keylong, the headquarters of Lahual and Spiti district, and higher reaches of Kinnaur, Rohtang Pass and Dhauladhar ranges.

Himachal's Keylong received about two centimeter of snow since morning. With fresh snowfall, the snow-level at Rohtang pass swelled up to about eight feet. lso, there have been reports of snowfall in higher reaches of Kinnaur, including on Sri Khand and Kinner Kailash mountains of the district bordering China.himla registered 5.7 degrees whereas Keylong temperature stood at -8.9 degrees while it was -2.5 degrees at Kalpa.

In Rajasthan, Mount Abu remained the coldest as mercury there dipped to 1.4 degrees, followed by Churu which braved a minimum temperature of 3.9 degrees. Minimum temperature remained at 8 degrees in Jaipur and 9.7 degrees in Ajmer and Jodhpur. (ANI)

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