Palanpur: With Mercury plunged into cold dots at the temperature of the subzero, tourists on the mountain of ash and potato farmers in the valley are the only happy faces that seem to enjoy winter in minus 3 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
Residents of Desesa City of Bansasa District, on the other hand, groaning under intensely intense cold waves with every cold wind blowing from the north side only helps the temperature down to 9.6 degrees, the lowest in this winter.
In addition to Banaskatha, districts such as Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Aravalli and Patan have also staggered under the bitter cold, forcing people to keep themselves indoors or warm on the roadside.
The weather department, however, does not predict any concessions in the offing of cold spells because the temperature tends to fall further due to heavy snowfall in the upper part of North India.
The source says that the presence in schools is rarely even in the alternative day system with the weather getting cold when parents refrain from sending their children into cold weather and fear of cold infection.
However, potato farmers are very happy because of the cold weather conducive to rabbi plants.
“This winter is very conducive to Rabbi cultivation,” said Deputy Director of the Ministry of Agriculture.
He said that even if the mercury rate slumped further, it would be beneficial for plants.
He said the total area to sow potatoes, however, had diminished by 5,000 hectares because farmers were unable to pay the increase in seed prices.
Potato sowing has been around 60,000 hectares, while the other rabbi plants are also sprinkled at 4,95,494 hectares.