Sagar Biswas :The crocodiles are taking sun bath, spotted deer hitting walls with their horns, leopards not showing any interest in food and Royal Bengal Tigers looking for heated enclosure. It was the scenario of National Zoo in the city’s Mirpur on Saturday. Like humans, animals of the zoo are seen shivering from chilly wind that is sweeping across the country for the last few days. As temperatures hovered below 10 degrees Celsius in lion, spotted hayena, stripped hyaena, fishing cat, Indian jackal, leopard cat, Asian palm civet, small Indian civet, spotted deer, Monkeys, donkeys, chimpanzees, pythons and others were seen trembling due to chilly weather. Especially, the foreign guests–white lion, white rhinoceroses, reticulated giraffes and crested pigeons–those arrived here recently still could not adjust themselves with the weather in this part of the globe.Along with the crocodiles, the impalas, waterbucks, common elands, hippopotamuses, racer monkeys, entellus were seen taking sun bath almost all over the day to overcome chilly weather. Met Office officials said at present mild to moderate cold wave is sweeping over Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions and the regions of Tangail, Mymensingh, Netrokona, Srimangal, Jessore and Kushtia and it may continue.The cold intensified further with low pressure over Siberian region pushing chilly winds towards Bangladesh forcing the mercury to dip. So, the night and day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country for a few more days, the officials said.”We are expecting a new cold wave in the first week of January next. The ongoing cold wave may continue two to three more days. The temperature will increase slowly till the end of December,” Md Shah Alam, Director, Department of Meteorology, told The New Nation last night. The Met Director said, “Weather is likely to remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country on Sunday. Moderate to thick fog may occur at places over the river basins and light to moderate fog may occur elsewhere over the country during late night till morning.”Meanwhile, the biting cold has paralysed the normal life across the country, particularly the north and northeast regions. Poor people are worst sufferer due to cold. Particularly, the condition of people living in the slums has turned miserable due to dip in mercury. The life of people living in the chars on the Ganges basin has become worst as they experience more chilly wind than that of the mainland. The people of northern region couldn’t see the sunlight as the sky remained covered with cloud and they witnessed drizzling like situation almost throughout the day yesterday.Country’s lowest temperature was recorded 6.1 degrees C at northeastern suburb Srimangal upazila yesterday while it was 13.5 degrees C in the country’s central part, Dhaka – lowest ever in the last few days.Hundreds of people, mostly children and elderly men, were reportedly admitted in different hospitals with cold-related diseases. Particularly in the north and north-eastern districts, most of the people abandoned their business activities to find a warmer place as the dense fog made a thick wall hiding the sunshine all over the day. The cold wave accompanied by dense fog is also causing severe disruption of air, road and river communications across the country disrupting people’s normal activities.Road transportation was also severely disrupted due to thick fog while the ferry services at Aricha and Mawa were also hampered blocking total communications to the northeast region. Many trucks and buses were driving slowly with their headlights on to avoid a collision for the reduced visibility in the morning. Officials said that the heavy fog led to suspension of ferry service for several hours between Mawa and Keorakandi as well as Paturia and Daulatdia yesterday causing huge tailback at Dauladia-Khulna highway in Rajbari. It also caused a three-kilometre long tailback on Dhaka- Paturia highway in Manikganj.However, country’s southeast locality Teknaf recorded highest temperature 28.5 degree C yesterday which was close to the pre-summer hot. Even, the south western tourist zone Khepupara got country’s highest temperature 25.0 degrees C yesterday. Obviously, it was a different scenario of existing cold wave!
