Tawang, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the eastern Himalayas and also the headquarters of the district by the same name in Arunachal Pradesh, experienced its first snowfall on Monday, with the tourism sector describing it as a major boost to the industry.While snowfall had begun on the mountains surrounding Tawang, situated at about 14,000 feet above sea level, for the past one week or so, the picturesque town got its first snowflakes late on Sunday evening. “The entire town is covered in about two to three inches of snow this morning,” G Tsering, a local hotelier, informed over the telephone. Hundreds of tourists, including several foreigners, frolicked in the snow on Monday while the district administration and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) remained on alert to remove any blockade on the vital Tawang-Bomdila road, the only lifeline of Tawang and Eastern Kameng, two Arunachal Pradesh districts that also share borders with China apart from Bhutan. D Riba, the district information officer on the other hand informed that the Sela Pass, the highest mountain pass at about 16,000 feet, that is situated between Tawang and Bomdila, has been under the cover of snow for several weeks now. Army bulldozers have been deployed round-the-clock to keep the road — also a strategic route for the Army — open. Tawang, just about 20 km away from the China border, has been in the news with the Chinese authorities coming out with occasional claims over it for several years now. The Chinese had in fact occupied Tawang for several days during the 1962 aggression.
