CHITRAL: The over 20 hours of power outages have led to a roaring business of glacial ice in Chiral town brought from the Lowari Pass.

The consumers said as refrigerators could not run by low voltage and in the absence of any ice factory in the area, glacial ice was the only source of cooling drinking water in Ramazan.

Haji Sohrab Khan, who was purchasing the ice from a stall at PIA chowk, said no iftari was possible without cold water as they consumed a large quantity of it to quench their thirst. He said due to power outages, most people were using the ice brought from the Lowari Pass, purchasing it at cheaper rates.

The high demand of the commodity has engaged hundreds of unemployed youth in the business who earn from Rs1,000 to Rs1,200 a day, while hundreds of mini trucks and jeeps are involved transporting it from the Lowari Pass to the Chitral town.

However, transportation of glacial ice from the pass to the city is a cumbersome job as a driver has to leave the city soon after iftari, pass the night at Lowari, and leave before sunset.

Sher Mohammad, who transports the ice, said the business roared in Ramazan, but dwindled after the holy month. He said the Lowari ice was not only consumed in Chitral town, it was also in high demand in villages along the road down to Ashrait.

SNOW LEOPARD DREADS PEOPLE: A wild animal believed to be a snow leopard has created panic in the highland pasture of Terich valley where it has killed more than 20 cattle heads during last three days.

Noor Afzal, a resident of Warimoon village, told Dawn on Tuesday that the unseen wild animal carried out onslaught against their animals grazing in the joint pasture of Shooch and Warimoon villages. He said carcasses and limbs of animals filled the people with fear.

He said in summer season, the villagers let their cattle to graze in the pasture for three months, adding although no person had so far spotted the wild animal, killing of animals on a large scale had made the villagers believe the predator was snow leopard.

The apprehension of the villagers is substantiated by Khurshid Ali Shah, head of Snow Leopard Foundation in Chitral, who says the animal had been detected to be present in the vicinity during a camera trapping in December last.

However, he said the snow leopard usually did not kill animals in large numbers at a time.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016