The national ski and snowboard championship due to be held in Uttarakhand’s Auli skiing hub from March 16-19 has been postponed again as a result of insufficient snowfall in the area.

The event had previously been slotted for January 29 and February 2 but had been rescheduled because of a lack of snow.

“This is the sixth time since 2014 that the championship has been cancelled or postponed in Auli,” said Santosh Kunwar, the founder of Auli Skiing School, a training institute that coaches beginners and advanced-level skiers. “If it continues like this, winter sports in India will become extinct.”

He noted that the likelihood of the event being held now was low, since rains had begun. “Now there is barely any chance of good snowfall,” he said.

The ski season in Auli this year has been restricted to the few days that followed three spurts of snowfall between January and early March, when skiers enjoyed stable snow on the gentle slopes. Though there was some snow on other days, “the bigger problem is that this snow is not stable, and it melts very quickly, which makes it impossible for skiing”, said Kunwar.

Auli is not the only place where winter sports have been disrupted because of a lack of...