By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 22: Sudden surge of chilling cold has started affecting life in various parts of the Terai region. According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), temperature has dipped in the Terai districts in the past few days.
Sameer Shrestha, a senior meteorologist at DHM, said that severe cold has hit the Terai areas but it is not a cold wave. “Cold wave is an unusually large and rapid fall in temperature over a short period of time such as in 24 hours but presently we cannot say that cold wave has begun in the Terai although the temperature is dropping for the past few days.”

According to Shrestha, partly to generally cloudy weather is predicted in the hilly and mountainous areas of Province 1, Bagmati Province and Gandaki Province and partly cloudy in the rest of the country from Tuesday night. There is also a chance of light snowfall at one or two places of the eastern and central high mountainous regions.
Meanwhile, our Rautahat correspondent wrote that in Rautahat, the market areas have remained quite as people are no longer able to go out of their houses due to increasing cold.

Number of patients, mostly children and elderly people visiting hospitals has increased. They visit with various problems including pneumonia, fever and whooping cough, said Krishna Sah, head of the district hospital.
Most of the people in city areas are burning waste to avoid cold.
Jagannath Keshari, a member of the civil society, has demanded that the concerned bodies make arrangements to prevent deaths due to cold in Rautahat district along with the Terai.

Bhola Mahato, a local, said that local bodies should provide firewood, warm clothes and mattresses to the poor people in different parts of the city as relief to protect them from the growing cold.
It has been getting cold in Mahottari for the last four or five days. To avoid the cold, people are burning fires and the number of fire incidents has increased in the rural areas.

Everyone has been asked to be vigilant as such weather would have a greater impact on the elderly, the sick and children.
Due to the cold, the number of patients in the district hospital Jaleshwor has also increased.
Dr. Subhash Mishra, Medical Officer, District Hospital, Jaleshwor, said that the number of patients suffering from cough, cold and fever has increased with the onset of cold.

In Nepalgunj, hundreds of seasonal flu patients are visiting local hospitals every day for treatment, after the temperature fell suddenly.
According to the doctors, the number of patients coming to various hospitals in the city daily with cases of cold, diarrhoea, pneumonia, asthma, fever and bronchitis is increasing.

According to Dr. M Kidwai, director at Nepalgunj Medical College, young and old people are coming to the hospital for the treatment of flu and asthma.
According to the Department of Medicine, the number of patients coming to Bheri Hospital with chest pain and difficulty in breathing has increased to more than 100 daily.