Heavy snowfall blankets Indo-China border: Red alert issued in Sikkim; tourists advised to avoid traveling
Times of India | 31 October 2025
GANGTOK: Fresh snowfall blanketed the higher reaches of the Indo-China border, including the Nathula Pass area, on Friday, bringing temperatures down sharply across Sikkim. The mercury dipped to sub-zero levels in several high-altitude regions, disrupting movement along key mountain routes.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), heavy to very heavy snowfall was recorded in and around Nathula, Kupup, and Tsomgo (Changu) Lake since early morning. The IMD has issued a red alert for Sikkim, warning of continued severe weather conditions over the next 24 hours.
Local authorities have advised tourists and transport operators to avoid travel to higher elevations as roads have become slippery due to snow accumulation.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) teams are working continuously to clear the snow and ensure essential connectivity.
Residents have been urged to take necessary precautions, while the state government has placed disaster response teams on standby.
Officials have warned that temperatures in the Nathula region could fall further overnight, marking one of the season’s earliest and heaviest snowfalls.
In a separate development, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has released Rs 8.3 lakh to Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) in Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim under the Access and Benefit Sharing framework of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change said on Saturday.
The funds were directly transferred to two BMCs: the Narrau Village Biodiversity Management Committee in Akrabad Kaul Taluk, Aligarh District, Uttar Pradesh, and the Biodiversity Management Committee in the Lampokhari Lake area, Aritar, Sikkim, via their respective State Biodiversity Boards.
According to the Ministry, one company accessed crop materials from Narrau village to produce fermentable compounds from lignocellulosic biomass, while another used microorganisms from water and soil samples collected in the Lampokhari Lake area for research purposes.
By allocating these funds, the NBA aims to empower local custodians to take a leading role in biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management.
Earlier, the NBA had released Rs 1.36 crore to support grassroots biodiversity conservation initiatives in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.