By Sobhapati Samon
IMPHAL, January15: Manipur is in the grip of a cold wave as the mercury plunged to 2.6 degree Celsius in the state capital today. The maximum temperature recorded was 21.9 degree, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Imphal sources said.
The minimum temperature of the volatile state which was hovering around 10 Degree Celsius on an average this month, has been gradually going down since Saturday, recording 2.6 degree Celsius which is much colder then that of December 14’s temperature recorded here.
Besides the state capital, severe cold wave conditions also prevailed in other hill district headquarters of the state,sources informed.”Cold wave conditions prevailed in some parts of west Madhya Pradesh and at isolated places in Assam & Meghalaya, Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim and west Uttar Pradesh”,reports Indian Meteorological Department in their website today. “Cold day conditions also prevailed at isolated places in east Uttar Pradesh.”With a minimum temperature of 2 degree Celsius,January 21 was the coldest day during last against previous year’s 2.3 degree Celsius as per Meteorological Office Imphal records on January 13.”Even though coldest day of the year 2010 was in January, people feel colder this fortnight because fog has remained for longer period”,feels weather report observers in Imphal.
The cold wave has forced households in Manipur to burn a huge amount of charcoal for their ‘meiphu’ (local heater). Earlier, households used to have a fireplace called Phung-ga to keep the house warm. But such fireplaces have nowadays given way to electrical appliances. Interestingly, the irregular power supply has forced many people to go back to charcoal to keep themselves warm despite its soaring prices.With cold wave gripping the State over the last few days besides recently concluded prolonged blockade, demand for charcoal has suddenly increased. “One bag of charcoal weighing 50 kg costs between Rs 450 to 500 today”, an Imphalite felt. “Last season the price was around Rs 360 to Rs 380.