A group of Khasi tribal men beat drums in Shillong, the capital of India's northeastern state of Meghalaya, on October 28, 2006. Rising summer temperatures in Shillong are driving away the hill city's tourists, who once sought summer relief there. REUTERS/Utpal Baruah
By Amarjyoti Borah
Shillong, India : This northeast Indian highland city, known as the Scotland of the East, has long been a pleasantly cool summer holiday destination for travelers fleeing Indian's boiling plains.
But Shillong now finds its fortunes fading as record heat creeps into India's northeast highlands.
Disappointed tourists, stunned by the unexpectedly sweltering conditions, are canceling holidays. And hotel owners are rushing to install air conditioning, fans and refrigerators in an attempt to placate the few disgruntled visitors that remain.
"Most of the tourists who came this year from the warmer areas in India have complained and have also said they will never come to Shillong as tourists again," lamented Abhijit Dutta, 32, who runs Travel Station, a local touring company.
Climate change is affecting a variety of livelihoods across India, from rice farmers forced to switch to new flood-tolerant crop varieties to water delivery services that find their trucks in ever-greater demand.
Tourism operators, it turns out, are affected as well.
In July, Pankaj Gogoi, a 29-year-old businessman from the northeast Indian plains city of Guwahati, turned around and went home after arriving for a two-day business meeting in sweltering Shillong, where temperatures this summer for the first time passed 30 degrees Celsius.
"The meeting was scheduled to start from July 24, but when I reached Shillong on July 23, I found the weather extremely hot. I started looking for an air conditioned room but all the air conditioned rooms in Shilong were occupied. So I came back on July 29 morning without attending the meeting," Gogoi said.
"I have been to Shillong on several occasions earlier during summertime, for both personal and business (reasons), but this was the first time I found Shillong so warm," he said.
Pritom Bhuyan, an Indian government employee from the plains town of Silchar, had planned a three-day holiday with his family in early July, but also cut his visit short.
"We had expected the weather to be cool and had planned to relax there. We were never prepared for the warm weather, so we came back after staying one night," Bhuyan said.
Tourism officials in Shillong say they will only know the extent of this summer's tourism downturn at the end of the financial year, when business figures are released.
But Dutta said his company last year organized tours for 280 summer tourists. This year it attracted less than 150.
Worse, "among those who went, a few returned after staying one night at Shillong, and complained that the weather was too hot," Dutta said.
"Shillong has always been a dream destination for tourists in the summers, as its summer temperature never (before) crossed 30 degrees," Dutta said. But now, "Shillong has changed drastically. The rainfall is much less and it is extremely warm. It is no more a dream destination during the summer," he said.
LACK OF RAINFALL TO BLAME
Scientists at the Indian Meteorological Department blame the abnormal rise in temperature in the region on a lack of rainfall.
During June, July and the first half of August, northeast India saw its normal monsoon rainfall cut by 29 percent, with Meghalaya state - where Shillong is located - suffering a 50 percent reduction.
"It is the rainfall variation in the region that is responsible for the rise in temperature," said Horogobindo Pathak, a director of the Indian Meteorological Department.
"Due to deficit rainfall, a 2 to 3 degree rise in temperature could occur not only in the summer but in the winter as well," he predicted.
Other Indian hill stations, including Gangtok, have seen similar heat problems, visitors and officials say.
"The summer is not cool like before and fans are a necessity at Gangtok. Tourists complain about the warm temperature," said Sandeep Chatterjee, a tourism operator in eastern India.
"Darjeeling is still a dream destination as fans are still not required and tourists have not started complaining," Chatterjee added. "But we fear after a few years Darjeeling will also get warmer in the summers, and if that happens it will hamper tourism."
In Shillong, temperatures this summer that at times reached nearly 34 degrees Celsius sent many arriving visitors in search of formerly unnecessary luxuries like air conditioning and chilled water.
"This year the first thing tourists asked us on their arrival was whether we have rooms with fans and air conditioners. Also, a fridge with cold water is a must for many of the tourists," said Shanti Debnath, manager of Hotel Broadway in Shillong.
"Three years back we didn't have fans in the hotel. Now we have fans in all the 33 rooms in the hotel and we also plan to install air conditioners in a few rooms," Debnath said.
Traders dealing in electrical goods say that sales of fans and air conditioners have been rising every year in Shillong.
"Over the last few years sales of fans have gone up several-fold, and every year it is increasing," said Piyush Jhunjhunwala, who runs Meghalaya Electricals, a Shillong electrical shop. "Also, all the new buildings and houses that have come up in Shillong over the last three years are fitted with fans or air conditioners."
For tourists, sadly, an air conditioned room in Shillong - if they can find one - doesn't hold quite the same appeal as the city's once cool natural breezes.
"People come to Shillong with a hope to enjoy the pleasant weather. But they are not able to these days," said Dipu Marak, a Northeast India tourism entrepreneur.
Amarjyoti Borah is a freelance journalist based in Guwahati, India.
