January 31: Most of the businessmen and locals of Khumbu, a major tourism hub in the Himalayan region, have left the area to ward off the chilling cold.    
Hotel owners, who are busy during the tourist season, have also started leaving the Khumbu area to escape the harsh winter.    
According to a local Damu Sherpa, around 70 percent of the businessmen and general public in the area have left Khumbu region. Most of them go to Kathmandu while some to India's Buddhagaya for pilgrimage during winter. Other descend to warmer places during winter.
Toya Shrestha of Lukla said the Khumbu area has turned deserted with the exit of most of the businessmen and locals.    
According to him, the airport, hotels/ and odges, camping sites and sight-seeing places of Khumbu, which used to be crowded with tourists, are now deserted during winter.    
Lamakaji Sherpa of Namche said that Namche, Gokyo, Kalapathar, Everest base camp and other places known as the gateway to Mt. Everest have also become deserted.    
Although some hotels are still open, the life of businessmen is becoming difficult. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN)’s branch office in Lukla, there are only five to six flights per day in Lukla, while there used to be more than 100 flights daily during the peak season.    
Due to its geographical remoteness and high mountainous area, people can no longer stay in this area during the winter months. A local informed that they live in this region only for six months in a year.    
With the rise in cold, a number of people shifting to Salleri, the headquarters of the mountainous district Solukhumbu, has increased. From children to the elderly, people have started setting fire on the streets to avoid the cold. Dawa Sherpa of Salleri said that the cold has especially affected the elderly and children.    
Nawaraj Parajuli of the Meteorological Centre, Salleri, said the temperature in Salleri has been steadily decreasing for the past one week. Salleri recorded a temperature of minus two degrees Celsius on Tuesday, he said. According to him, the temperature in the district is the lowest this year.    
Life in the upper parts of the district has been further affected by the cold. Angfurwa Sherpa, a local, said that the cold has crippled daily life in the mountainous areas of Namche, Lukla and Fakding. There has been a problem in water supply in Khumbu area of the district as the water has frozen in the pipe due to cold. Drinking water supply has been affected in the Sagarmatha region with water pipes freezing due to extreme cold.     
Nuru Sherpa, a local, said that the supply of drinking water has been stopped in various parts of Khumbu as the frozen water did not melt even during in the afternoon.

"In Khumbu, even the edible oil freezes. It melts in presence of the sun. The water stored inside the house does not melt throughout the day if there is no sun. The situation here is different from what you think. Life is difficult. That is why most of the people leave Khumbu. Only a few of us are left in the villages."    
According to the locals, the temperature in the upper parts of the district has dropped to minus 17 degrees Celsius. The cold has affected development works as well as other daily activities, while the movement of people in the villages is decreasing.    
Lhakpa Sherpa, a teacher at PK Secondary School, Loding, said that people are compelled to spend time by lighting fire. He added that the schools are closed. -- RSS