The winter games in Auli, which were scheduled to be held in the last week of February, have now been cancelled due to a lack of snow in the area.
This is the fifth time that skiing events have been cancelled in Auli due to insufficient snow. The winter games were cancelled here in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 as well.
Vivek Chauhan, joint director of Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB), confirmed that the skiing championship events will not take place in Auli this year. Notably, participants from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and other states were to participate in the event.
It is worth mentioning that the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) had also procured a snowmaker machine for the Auli slopes but it didn’t prove to be of much help. The one-of-its-kind machine was originally bought for the South Asian Winter Games in 2011. Sources say that GMVN officials have spent lakhs of rupees in fixing the machine, which suffered a breakdown in 2016.
Meanwhile, Roop Chand Negi, secretary-general, Skiing and Snowboard India, the governing body of winter sports in India, said that the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir have been asked to hold the winter games this year as these places have received decent snowfall.
