They cross frozen river to reach Leh from Zanaskar in 5 days

Kargil, Apr 10 (UNI) With the melting of 157-km- long frozen surface of river '' Chadar'' following improvement in the weather, the people in Zanaskar remained cut off with the rest of the world.

''We use the frozen surface of the river to reach Leh after covering the 157-long distance in five days,'' a resident of the Zanaskar Ghulam Rasool told UNI.

However, on some occasions it takes more than a week or two, depending upon the weather, as the surface gets frozen only when the temperature dips to minus six to ten degrees, he said.

Ghulam Rasool said the main 332-km-long Kargil-Zanaskar road gets closed in November every year due to 15 to 20 feet snow and reopens only in the last week of May.

Along with five other residents of Zanaskar, I arrived at Leh in the first week of February through the frozen river,'' he said adding ''it was very risky too. We had no alternative but to use the river to Leh,'' he added.

However, he said, the authorities have decided to operate M-17 Indian Airforce helicopter between Zanaskar and Leh and Kargil on every Thursday. But, he said, due to bad weather the service mostly remaineds suspended.

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