Shimla, Jan 11 (IANS) Icicles have finally appeared in this Himachal Pradesh capital after many years, bringing alive good old memories for the locals and conjuring up a delightful spectacle for tourists.

“It’s a great welcome and relief to see the icicles,” said octogenarian Randev Sharma who lives in the Jakhu hills, the highest point of the town.

Sharma said the icicles were once common in the town. “This winter the icicles appeared after a gap of over five to six years,” he added.

His wife Sushma Devi recalled that in the distant past the icicles grew up to six feet.

“Sharp-pointed icicles were once a common sight in every building as they hung from the slanting roofs. We used to advise children not to go near them as the points could hurt them. Now their size has drastically reduced,” she said.

Icicle, a pendent spear of ice formed by the freezing of dripping rooftop water, is an indicative of harsh winter.

Ankita Singh was an awestruck tourist from Delhi. She said: “It is really marvellous to see nature’s bounty. It seems we are sitting in a deep freezer.”

M.R. Kaundal, retired government employee who settled in Shimla in 1945, said that till the late 1990s appearance of icicles in the town was a normal feature of winters. “Now you can see icicles only in areas in the Jakhu hills.”

From 2007 to 2011, except 2008, the Shimla town, situated at an altitude of 2,130 metres, was bereft of its traditional winter white blanket of snow. Except for one or two mild spells, there was no major snow during these years.

However, Shimla experienced 62 cm of snow Feb 12, 2007, which was the thickest snowfall for a single day in the past 99 years. But the rest of that winter was more or less without the much sought after snow.

This winter after mild spells of snow for days together, the town saw 24.6 cm of snow Jan 9.

Environmentalists blame deforestation and rising pollution for the change in the climatic conditions around Shimla.