Kashmir valley’s yellow flowers blossoming into avenue of opportunities
PULWAMA : Vast stretches of countryside land now find themselves covered not in snow but beds of dainty yellow flowers, lending a welcome touch of colour to the Valley’s landscape — especially along the thoroughfares.
The mustard flowers have become a bit of a tourist attraction, commanding stopovers on national highways and other roads. Even a brief glimpse of the flowerbeds has begun to inspire awe. The number of people panning their cameras and phones at the fields for photographs to remember the Valley’s memorable trip has grown.
“This is my first time witnessing a sea of yellow flowers. The sight in the backdrop of mountains forced us to request our cab driver for a stopover,” Pawan Kumar, a tourist from New Delhi, said of his experience near Pampore in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
After a long spell of winter, the bloom of yellow flowers also came as an announcement for the summer.
Mustard is the first crop harvested by the Kashmir farmers, who, of late, have begun to understand the economic boom that the mustard and oil seed harvested from the tiny flowers may bring.
This year, the favourable weather doubled the production especially in view of the farmers having brought more land under its cultivation.
Taking notice, the tourism department is also now planning to have stopovers for tourists at mustard fields around the national highway and on the roads leading towards the ski resort town of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg.
“For us, mustard fields are becoming a new tourist attraction and we would like to add this in the itinerary of tourists,” a tourist official said.