Tourism woes in Kashmir

As separatist militancy peters out in Kashmir, the valley is beset by armies

As separatist militancy peters out in Kashmir, the valley is beset by armies of tourists who bring in the dollars but devastate the fragile ecology of ‘Asia’s Switzerland’.

Alarmed at the rapid destruction, the state’s environment and remote sensing department has called, in a report, for immediate remedial measures against unplanned construction at the resort of Sonamarg, 87 km north-east of this city, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.
“While development of modern infrastructure is of paramount importance for meeting the needs of tourism industry, it is important to design such development in an eco-friendly fashion to preserve and conserve the fragile ecology and environment of Sonamarg,” says the yet unpublished report.

“The development which has already taken place at Sonamarg, or is in progress, has serious, adverse impacts on the ecology and environment,” the report, made available exclusively to IPS, warns.

According to the report, the waste generated by hundreds of thousands of tourists is disposed of untreated and no thought given to scientific management while effluents are finding their way into the Sindh River, which flows through the resort.

“This causes extensive pollution of the river because no sewerage treatment plant (STP) is in place and the same needs to be planned at the earliest,” the report says.

“Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is not managed scientifically as prescribed under the municipal solid waste management rules under the Environment Protection Act 1986. For this purpose a modern landfill site needs to be developed as is mandatory under the Act, to manage MSW.”

Environment activists in Kashmir, which forms part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, say that Sonamarg has so far been spared the havoc visible in other famed tourist spots in the state such as Gulmarg and Pahalgam.

“Unfortunately, this pristine valley is going the same way as the other major tourist spots and the same kind of degradation is now to be seen in Sonamarg,” Musavir Ahmed, an environment activist with Serene Kashmir, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), told IPS.

“Pahalgam and Gulmarg have been turned into concrete jungles through unplanned construction that ignored such basics as treatment for liquid and solid waste,” Ahmed said.

Kashmir’s tourist spots attracted visitors through the last two decades of violent insurgency, but the footfalls are increasing as peace descends on the valley.

According to official figures, 1.4 million tourists visited Kashmir in the summer of 2011 with fiscal 2011-2012 generating 950 million dollars compared to 531 million dollars in 2006-2007.

About half-a-million people are directly or indirectly associated with the tourism industry in the Kashmir region, which accounts for seven million of Jammu and Kashmir’s 12.5 million strong population.

Such is the rapidity of the degradation that environmental groups fear that the very features that attract tourists to Kashmir will now work towards their destruction.

The Pahalgam Peoples Welfare (PPW), an NGO, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Jammu & Kashmir High Court asking for intervention in stopping illegal constructions in Pahalgam and the court has already served notices to the government and its arm, the Pahalgam Development Authority.

“Through the PIL, we have conveyed to the court that building bylaws are being violated,” said Reyaz Ahmed, member secretary of PPW.

“Powerful officials and influential businessmen have converted the green zones in the master plan into areas for construction after purchasing chunks of land in Pahalgam,” Ahmed said.

Environmental activists are encouraged by the fact that the court has taken oversight of the government’s plans to cleanse Srinagar’s famed Dal lake, which has turned into a vast cesspool as result of raw sewage being discharged into it.

Sabah ul Solim, senior scientist at Kashmir’s Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, says the Dal has now become a repository of nutrients, which is upsetting its ecological balance.

“The Dal lake has become so rich in nutrients that farmers use the silt for organic manure in their orchards during the de-silting operations,” Solim told IPS. The nutrients foster the growth of stubborn underwater weeds that are choking out other plant species and reducing the depth of the lake.

“We have around 6,000 people living around the lake while there are 600 houseboats that accommodate tourists,” said Solim. “All the raw sewage from homes, hotels and houseboats is discharged into the lake with unfortunate results.”

“We tried installing mini-STPs in the houseboats, but they proved impractical to operate and maintain,” Solim said.

According to Shahid Ahmad, who teaches environmental science at the Sri Pratap College in Srinagar, the lake has also shrunk in size. “Massive encroachments and the erection of many structures and hotels along the banks have led to a serious reduction in the total area of the lake.”

According to official estimates the Dal lake has lost 10 sq km to encroachments since 1953 when the it measured 25 sq km.

The Dal lake’s case is not an isolated one in Kashmir. Ahmad says that the Wullar, Mansbal, and Anchar lakes are likewise under threat. “Wullar, among the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, has shrunk from 190 sq km to about 72 sq km.”

Gulmarg, 50 km north of Srinagar, has no waste treatment facility although thousands of tourists throng the ski resort every summer, leaving behind large amounts of waste.

Atal Dillu, tourism commissioner, acknowledges the many loopholes in Kashmir’s tourism policy. “Yes there are lacunae.

Source: http://www.newstoday.com.bd

Visitors will see 8 new Tulip varieties this year in Kashmir‘s Tulip garden

Srinagar, Mar 23 (ANI): Preparations are in full swing for an annual tulip festival in Jammu and Kashmir, which is set to be a major tourist attraction.

Local authorities have been immersed in the festival organisation in Siraj Bagh (forest), which overlooks the scenic Dal Lake by the foothills of the famous Zabarwan hills.

Labourers have been working around the clock to ensure that the festival starts by the end of the month or early April.

"I believe that this season will turn out to be far better than the last four seasons. People this time will be able to see much nicer flowers than the previous four seasons in the festival, which we are going to open after 10 to15 days to the public," said Muhammad Shafi Beg, the supervisor of the tulip garden.

By April, tulips are usually in full bloom in and around Srinagar, lending an ethereal atmosphere to the Valley, which has been dubbed by many as 'paradise on Earth'.

The tulips, set against the backdrop of the majestic snow-clad Himalayan Mountains, are a major tourist attraction. In most parts of the world, tulips are only found in the plains.

"This tulip garden is very famous in Asia and we are preparing for this festival so that there is a bigger turnout of tourists. Kashmir is known as 'paradise on Earth' and I believe that through this tulip festival we want to promote this image of Kashmir," said Muhammad Younis, a local resident.

Holland is globally renowned for its tulips but over the last few years an increasing number of tourists are visiting Kashmir for its flora.

Kashmir has the Asia's largest tulip garden called Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, Siraj Bagh Cheshmashahi in Srinagar.

The festival is held annually in the month of April when tulips are in full bloom. The sprawling tulips of varied colours make the garden look like a silken carpet with intricate designs. The scene is simply captivating with floral charm. It is a visitor's memorable delight. (ANI)

Face of Hope Reflects Calm in Kashmir

NEW DELHI — There was the smell of hay and soil in the crowded village hall in the Kashmir Valley. The men were on plastic chairs in the front rows, and the women were in the back ones. The doorway was packed with adolescent boys and young men with fierce, translucent eyes. The only sound in the room belonged to the speaker, with occasional deep-throated exclamations of men and honest applause of all.

A district magistrate in India usually does not enjoy such attention.

But in this cluster of farming villages on the slopes of a hill, 60 kilometers, or 40 miles, from Srinagar, a city of paradisiacal beauty and the capital of the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, people will listen with great care to any man who tells them how he plans to bring roads, electricity, jobs and good schools to their villages, which have been impoverished by decades of strife.

In recent times, especially the last year, there has been relative calm in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a mostly Muslim region held by India and claimed by Pakistan. The attacks of militants demanding that the region be removed from India’s control have abated after nearly two decades of violence. Local support for the militants has diminished considerably, although the desire for freedom from India and to become a sovereign republic has not, nor has hatred for the Indian Army, which has a formidable presence here.

Facing the villagers in the hall was one of Kashmir’s stars, the 29-year-old deputy district magistrate, Dr. Shah Faesal, who has a degree in medicine. Almost everybody in Kashmir is beautiful, and Dr. Faesal’s clean, studious, good-boy charms are somewhat unremarkable in this room.

What made him the center of attention is the fact that two years ago, he ranked first among more than half a million candidates in the Union Public Service Commission examination, one of the most prestigious in India. Dr. Faesal was the first Kashmiri to top the civil service exam, an achievement that brought a procession of ecstatic, drum-beating people to his home when news broke on television channels.

When it was Dr. Faesal’s turn to speak to the gathering, there was spirited applause. A young woman, a local journalist whose head was covered, blushed as she stood holding a recording device close to his face. She almost never met his eyes through the course of his speech.

Dr. Faesal has a firm but reverent style of speaking. He told me after the meeting: “I respect everyone. It is very useful to be that way, but I am not putting on an act. I address every person I meet as ‘Sir,’ including the village women. They love it when I call them ‘Sir,’ and they start laughing. Nobody has ever called them that.”

He said that the recent period of peace in the region was not a window of deceptive calm, but the first sign that common sense was finally winning. He wants to make the most of it to bring development to Kashmir’s poor.

Vivanta by Taj, one of the two five-star hotels in Srinagar, is an immediate beneficiary of peace. The hotel is set on top of a hill of tulips and ancient trees and is surrounded by great, snow-capped mountains. It is guarded like a fortress by armed men, but many of its defenses are not visible to the pampered guests.

A security official, who had undergone a month’s counterterrorism training in Israel, told me that the hotel had its own intelligence gathering system, which includes using a network of local residents for information about anything unusual in their neighborhood.

It had been about 10 months since the hotel opened, and all its 48 operational rooms were booked, even though February was not peak season in Srinagar. The revival of the tourism business is evident all over Srinagar. Honeymooning couples from across India are arriving in droves, confident that they will return alive.

The simplicity of peace can end at any moment in Kashmir. There can be another attack by militants, or street protests of Kashmiris against the Indian Army that can last days. But the people here are growing confident that this may be a new beginning they had wished for.

The restaurants and cafes are filled with happy conversations. The joy is visible in the people walking down the streets, many of whom look pregnant because they are holding, under their long checked robes, a cane-wrapped pot filled with burning embers of coals to keep warm. They are so used to it that they, including Dr. Faesal, can go to sleep with the pot of red coal between their legs.

When the meeting in the village hall was over, some elders, the district magistrate and Dr. Faesal went upstairs for a feast. There were huge pieces of fried river carp, and chicken and lamb, which the men tore into with both hands, their fingers growing luminous with oil. And they boisterously discussed things to be done in the villages.

Dr. Faesal has a cheerful face even though his life has been marked by tragedies that are common to thousands of Kashmiris. His father, a schoolteacher who spoke against violence, was killed by unidentified gunmen a decade ago. Before that, Dr. Faesal’s father was one of the thousands of Kashmiris who were routinely humiliated by the Indian Army, he said.

“Once, after a terrorist strike, the army just picked up some men in revenge and beat them up,” he said. “My father was among them.”

According to Dr. Faesal, his father was also forced to recite a Hindu chant, “Ram, Ram.”

After the meal, the district magistrate left in a car that had a red light on it, and he was followed by armed guards and an old, battered ambulance, which had nothing in it but a narrow bed. It might as well have been a hearse. As the ambulance made its way through the unpaved village lane, two little girls mimicked the sound of the ambulance siren.

During the long years of conflict here, that had been the predominant sound of childhood.

Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “Serious Men.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/world/asia/01iht-letter01.html?_r=1