Tourists play with snow at Tiger Hill on Thursday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Dec. 31: Nature crafted a perfect winter landscape today, blanketing Tiger Hill on the upper ridges of Darjeeling with snow early this morning.

The temperature dipped to minus 3 degrees Celsius at Tiger Hill when it started snowing from 1am for three hours. By 9.30am, the temperature had risen to zero degree Celsius. In Darjeeling town located more than 1,000ft downhill, the minimum temperature recorded in the past 24 hours was minus 1 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was 13 degrees Celsius.

“It’s heavenly. I wish the hills were always so perfect and calm,” said Vaishali Pradhan, a hill resident who refused to speak much but came across as a person who seemed disturbed with “all that ails the beautiful Darjeeling”.

There were not many tourists at Tiger Hill to enjoy the snow — thanks to the agitation in the hills — but hordes of local people reached there as early as six in the morning. Many even trekked a 4km steep gradient from Jorebunglow in the biting cold to reach the hill located at 8,000 feet. Darjeeling town is at 6,800 ft.

“It started snowing from 1am and carried on for at least three hours. The snow seems to be around three inches thick,” said Pradip Lama, the in-charge of the Tiger Hill Complex, the place from where tourists enjoy the sunrise, about 14km from the heart of Darjeeling.

A white blanket covers a part of Tiger Hill. Picture by Suman Tamang

There was no “sunrise” (the morning was foggy) for Calcutta-based Biswajit Goswami but he thought his “day had been made”.

A few like Pallav Sharma, a Gurgoan based garment designer, even decided to take a detour on way to Siliguri to enjoy the snow. “I was on my way to Siliguri today but when I heard about the snowfall I decided to take a detour to Tiger Hill. This is the first time I am playing with snow,” he added.

A jubilant Sharma, however, said “the roads are scary. Something must be done about it”. He is among the few tourists who arrived in Darjeeling on December 28 despite threats of strikes and possibility of unrest, not to speak of the blockades, and stayed back.

Snow fight seemed a must for all the visitors to Tiger Hill. Many hill residents who have gone down to the plains to spend the winter could not come up to see the snow because of the blockade set up by the Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha.

Apart from Tiger Hill, there were also reports of snowfall in Tumling, Sandakphu and Phalut situated at 12,000 feet.

Last year it had snowed in Darjeeling town on January 26 but few could enjoy as a steady drizzle that followed had immediately washed off the snow.