Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo
On last Sunday, we visited Baltal base camp in Sonamarg. It was a wonderful day-long, to and fro. journey from Srinagar. Baltal is the base camp for Amarnath Yatra via Sonamarg. Right from Ganderbal to Baltal, it is a series of beautiful landscapes. One can have a complete satisfaction as an observer of nature to witness the “naked beauty” of Kashmir’s landscapes of the Lower Sindh area encompassing Ganderbal, Wayal, Dursum, Wussan, Prang, Kangan, Sonamarg and Baltal.
Amarnath Yatra has a thousands of years history at it’s back. In earlier times, Amarnath was known as Amreshwar. The route for the Yatra that was recognised as the traditional route is Srinagar-Pampore-Awantipura-Anantnag-Mattan-Pahalgam-Chandanwari-Sheshnag-Panchtarni-Holy Cave. The alternate route via Ganderbal-Kangan-Sonamarg-Baltal-Domel-Holy Cave is a new phase of history that has been added over the last one hundred years. Primarily this route was developed by the Army Jawans over the last fifty years and it has assumed the status of a full fledged alternate route to the holy cave.
The sacred Amravati river from Amreshwar flows down along this alternate route and makes the whole landscape more beautiful and charming. Sonamarg is indeed a great meadow attracting a large number of people both locals and non-locals during the summer seasons. Baltal is a diversion from the main national highway leading towards Kargil, Leh, Damchok and Chushul.
First of all, my group members expressed satisfaction on the arrangements made by authorities for the ongoing Amarnath yatra. They felt happy with the attitude of the people engaged in the arrangements on the spot. We also met Yatra officials and workers at various facilities including Langar services for the pilgrims.
The 46-day annual Amarnath Yatra began from both Pahalgam and Baltal routes on 1 July and will conclude on 15 August.
Many of the people at the camp lauded the efforts at providing hygienic foods to pilgrims and maintainance of sanitation. They appreciated the authorities for making available the emergency facilities like ambulance service and mobile ATM van at the Baltal base camp for the convenience of yatris. We had a sumptuous food at one of the Langars and it was a great experience to know about the services rendered by devotees to the yatries free of cost.
We also spoke to the yatris, who had come from different states of India to pay obeisance at the Amarnath cave, and sought feedback on the overall facilities available for them at the base camp.
The Yatries, by and large, had no complaints with regard to any lack of arrangements or inconvenience during the yatra. We held a brief deliberation with the camp director, Subhash Dogra and additional camp director Kartar Singh.
During the meeting Subhash Dogra informed us that the yatra was going on smoothly and all arrangements were in place for the pilgrimage.
In the meeting, Subhash Dogra said the entry and exit of yatris were taking place at Neelgarh. However, there was a need to create separate exit system for the ease of yatris at Neelgarh helipad camp, he said. Currently, six helicopters—three each from Himalayan service and Global Vectra—are ferrying yatris from the camp to the holy cave.
During the meeting Subhash Dogra said that at an average 1400-1500 yatris use the helicopter service to visit the cave each day.
But we expressed dismay over the unmacadamised 3.8 kilometre road stretch from Ya-juction to Baltal base camp and Y-junction to Runga. The authorities should have ensured the macadamisation of the road stretch before the commencement of the Yatra to avoid pollution due to the dust in the ecologically fragile area. We conveyed our sentiments to the appropriate authorities in this context.
The tourism inflow has increased due to the success of the yatra in the J&K state. Right message is being spread about the Yatra ab initio. The yatra number has crossed Two lakh fifty thousand till date and may touch five lakh this time in case everything goes well. This is a big success and it will boost the prospects of Budda Amarnath Yatra in Poonch and the regular tourist inflow in general towards Kashmir.
There is no denying the fact that the last three decades’ mayhem has damaged the tourist industry a lot. The J&K state needs to think afresh about the industry. The desicion of the government to segregate Tourism and Culture is not in good taste. In fact these two departments have a tradition to go ahead alongwith and work as complimentary and supplementary to each other. The J&K state had a very bad experience of overemphasization of tourism centred on a particular region. This regional bias will have to go sooner than later.
The golden tourist traingle of Bani-Basohli-Billawar needs to be linked with Atal Setu, Backwaters of Ranjeet Sagar Dam (Mini Goa) and development of existing island parks in the dam waters. The Lakhanpur-Bani Development Authority or Basohli-Billawar Authority and any other such official mechanism should be merged together to pave a way for a more responsible and responsive authority machinery to take a wholesome view of this whole belt spread over 125 km east to west and north to south. It has potential to develop not only for the summer season but winter sports could also be organised in this zone at two important points of 7,000 feet altitude.
All the three regions of the state have a great potential and each province needs to be encouraged independently in this regard without putting them against each other. I make a fervent appeal to the government to merge together the departments of tourism and culture or in the alternative club them together under one command and control for speedy policy and results.
The J&K state needs to look beyond Pahalgam, Patni Top and Leh. A new map can be drawn for boosting tourism in the state and new venues like Bhaderwah, Bani, NaranNag, Karnah, Gurez, Poonch, Nobra and Zanskar could be developed without damaging the environment, natural beauty and jungles. Younger generations are fond of new tourist possibilities and adventures, time has come to convert dreams into reality to add up new avenues of income @tourism in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
Tourism, religious tourism, cultural tourism, craft tourism, educational tourism and even the medical tourism have added to the idiom of the modern vocabulary. Consumer surplus has increased and younger ones love to spend money on clothes, adventure, foods, travels and merry making. J&K state needs to speed up and grab the opportunity without further delay. It is the time to act, plan, implement and follow up. Once done, it is a Royalty for decades onwards.
(Feedback: ashwanikc2012@gmail.com)
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