Hyderabad: Hyderabad is no more a lucrative market for Tibetan refugees who have been coming to the city for more than three decades to sell woollen clothing during winter.
The number of Tibetan families who sell woollens on the roadside from Chaderghat towards the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station has come down from 135 in the seventies to just about 31 this year.
One of the reasons that the Tibetan refugees stated for their dwindling was the difference between their business model and that of the Indian players, making their winter wear costlier.
Tsomo, a Tibetan refugee from Himachal Pradesh, who had been coming to the city from 1977, said: “We buy our woollen clothing from Punjab and sell it in Hyderabad whereas the other roadside stall owners buy them locally. We are completely dependent on the income we earn from selling woollen clothes in Hyderabad for our sustenance. As a result, we cannot afford to sell at very low margins.”
He said the traders used to sell all their wares by January in the past but that was not the case now.
While Tibetan refugees refrain from exploring markets where their colleagues have already set up base, Indian players who used to sell woollens in Hyderabad earlier are shifting to new places.
A seller from Karnataka said, "Some of my family members who used to sell in Hyderabad have now shifted to places like Karimnagar, Warangal and Visakhapatnam where winters are colder than here.”
However, thanks to the sudden drop in temperatures in the city over the past few days, stall owners cutting across lines of nationality and statehood are happy as sales have picked up.
Chill will stay for 3 more days: IMD
The city continued to remain chilly on Sunday, registering a marginal fall in the minimum temperature. The Met office recorded the mininum temperature at 12.5ºC, as against 12.6ºC a day before.
Adilabad was the coldest place in the state with the mercury hovering around the 5ºC mark on Sunday. Cold winds from the north and northeast are lowering the temperatures in the state, the Indian Meteorological Department said.
The cold wave is expected to last for three more three days in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Nizamabad districts. The day temperatures continue to be 29ºC, which is normal for this time of the year, according to the IMD officials.
The health department has asked the doctors at the swine flu section of Gandhi Hospital to be alert ahead of an expected rise in the number of patients due to the chilly conditions. Three cases have been recorded in the last three days when the temperature began falling. The total number of swine flu cases from August 2015 stands at 603.
