Weather plays spoil sport in Darjeeling

Darjeeling, Dec 26 (UNI) Weather is playing spoilsport in the tourist season in the Queen of hills.

When Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the northern India are reeling under cold wave, changing weather pattern in northern Bengal is affecting the inflow of tourists at the Queen of the hills.

The hills, devoid of the usual chilly mornings and snowfall, have failed to attract tourists this season.

The West Bengal government is concerned about the fall in the number of tourists here. State Tourism Department-North Bengal Deputy Director Gopal Lama told UNI today, ''The department is taking up new schemes to attract the tourists. We are trying to experiment with new concepts like tea tourism which is likely to be introduced by February 2007.'' Mr Lama said, ''Nathula has become another tourist spot in North East India. So tourists are going to Sikkim now.'' A recent report of State Tourism Department show that 16,56,938 tourists had visited North Bengal in 2002. Out of which 16,00,526 were domestic and 56,412 foreign. The figure touched 28,73,881 in 2005. Out of this, 27,77,262 were from domestic and 96,619 foreign.

But this year, the number has gone down by 10,71,083 (till September 2006), out of which 10,08,368 is domestic figure and the rest 6715 foreign.

This report goes on to explain how tourism industry had been affected due to changing weather pattern, the North Bengal University Met department said.

The department said they have studied the trend of tourist inflow over the last five years and its impact on climatic change.

It has found that western disturbance coming from North India deterred the winter to set in and the weather has changed in Darjeeling region.

UNI XC-JYN DB/AB YA DB1321