Mokokchung, June 26 (MExN): Traditionally, the weather in Mokokchung is warm during summers and cool during winters. But now, the mercury level is rising every year and the best indicator to this trend is the increasing number of fans being sold in the market.
There are four main shops dealing in electrical goods and all of them confirmed that the sales of fans –especially table fans and stand-fans – have increased within the past few months. The owner of an electrical goods shop in the main town said he has sold more than a hundred pieces of fans within the month of May and June. Others were a bit apprehensive about divulging their sales. Nonetheless, all the shop owners disclosed that fans are in huge demand.
Interestingly, table fans or stand-fans are the ones being sold in huge numbers. “People don’t opt for ceiling fans because their houses don’t have provisions for holding such a fan. After all, most of the houses were built in the eighties and nineties, and who would have thought that one day we might need a fan then,” said an electrical shop owner, who has been residing in Mokokchung town for the past 32 years. Only the newly built houses have kept ceiling fans in mind during the construction process. In the past, visitors, especially from the plain areas, observed that one prominent feature of houses in Mokokchung was the lack of fans. There was no need for them back then.
However, at present the temperature sometimes crosses 30°C and it can get quite hot. In spite of this, unlike in other plain areas, the humidity is normal and therefore there is no need for an air conditioner. A simple fan can ensure cool air to beat the heat. Nonetheless, the increasing temperature has left many to assume that it is an effect of global warming. Some wonder whether it is due to the depleting forest in the area caused by jhum or shifting cultivation. Whatever the cause might be, the temperature keeps on rising, and perhaps something needs to be done in this regard. Some concerned organizations and individuals have taken up tree plantation in and around the town. “But planting trees is one thing and growing them is another,” as one citizen commented. For now, the cool weather in Mokokchung is slowly heating up while the shopkeepers selling fans are, literally, ‘making hay while the sun shines’.
