Get ready to 'move your feet' at the Shimla Ice-Skating rink!

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], Dec. 30 (ANI): It is ice everywhere in Shimla and one can't stop but end up playing with it. The cherry on the cake is the sessions of ice-skating being started in the historic rink here. The place is already attracting lots of local youth and school children. Around 150 people have already registered their names for the three months session, in both, senior and junior category. What's unique about the rink is that it is the only rink in entire India which open-air. However, this year due to bad weather, the ice-skating started late here. The organisers and club members are concerned with the change in climate and the impact it might have on the rink. They are now planning to turn the rink into an all-weather ice-skating rink, but at the same time, want to keep it open in order to the history and heritage of the rink intact. Expressing the same concern, secretary of the Ice-Skating Club Shimla Manpreet Singh told how the duration of the skating has changed due to altering weather. "In our childhood, we used to start skating in November, but this year the skating has started in end of December," said Singh. He urged the government to preserve the long-lasting rink and contribute towards making it a better place. "In order to preserve the ice-skating rink, the heritage status of the rink, the government should come up and help the rink to be made functional at least for five months," he said. A local member of the club, Suparna was also of the same opinion and expressed the difference she witnessed in the past few years. "I have been skating for the past 18 years now. If you talk about the quality of the club, it has improved, but definitely the ice has gotten down really badly. Initially the skating used to start in November or in the first week of December but this time it has started almost at the end of December...We can blame it on the global warming," she said. With global warming overpowering the natural weather, extreme situations have emerged where on the one hand a hot place like Saudi Arabia witnessed snowfall and on the other, tourists are waiting to enjoy the sight of snowfall in the hilly regions, where otherwise it is a common sight. (ANI)