Dwindling tourism worries shikara rowers
J&K Tourism has spent more than Rs 20 crore on road shows across the country but tourists have not turned up.
Another tourist season has failed in the Kashmir Valley, leaving the shikara rowers of Dal Lake frustrated and hopeless.
“We have families to sustain and we depend on tourists, who come only in summer. In winter, we are idle. The government is doing nothing for us except assuring us that tourism will pick up,” said Abdul Salam Dar, an old shikara rower. He says that their families have large debts and no income to repay them.
Some young shikarawalas joined Dar in blaming the media and the government for the decline in tourism in the state.
They claim that the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department is spending crores of rupees on road shows and on Bollywood stars in Mumbai, but have no concern for the poor shikara rowers who have no options open to them to sustain their families.
“We will shift to some other business. Why should we remain idle with shikaras on Dal and give interviews to the media about our state of affairs,” they said.
Many of them are blaming the September 2014 floods or the media, which they claim has magnified the extent of militancy in Kashmir. There are about 4,800 shikaras, traditional Kashmiri boats, in Dal Lake and Jhelum river. Tourism stakeholders say that at least 2.5 lakh people are directly connected with the industry, while 8 lakh more are indirectly sustained by the industry in Kashmir.
When asked if the Amarnath Yatra will give them some respite, the shikara rowers said that most of the pilgrims go back after darshan and only a rare few come to Dal Lake. More than 1 lakh pilgrims have reached J&K for the Yatra so far.
The shikara rowers claim that the Tourism Department has spent more than Rs 20 crore on road shows across the country, which have failed to bring in tourists. Instead, they say, the money could have been spent on the welfare of their families. “We have small loans, and a few crores would have brought cheer to our families. But no one cares for us. They want us in the waters of Dal Lake to sell our faces for tourism, but they wait for us to commit suicide,” said Ali Muhammad, an old shikara rower in Dal Lake.
A senior tourism official admitted that 70% of bookings were cancelled and the season has not picked up. “I admit that the families of shikara rowers need help, but such decisions are taken by the government at the top level,” the official said. The ‘Make in India’ campaign is going to benefit the environment, Ambassador of France to India, Francois Richier said Wednesday. “Initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ will aid the environment. Since India imports many products which can be manufactured in this country itself, transport emissions are on the rise. If it were to manufacture these products right here, this would lead to a drastic drop in transport emissions,” Richier said at a seminar organised by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the French embassy in India. The seminar, ‘Indo-French Seminar on Technological Innovations for Sustainability-The Road to Paris: Solutions for COP21’, which took place in New Delhi was a precursor to the Paris Climate Change Conference to be held in France in December. The seminar was the product of collaboration between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
A recurring theme at the event was that of solar energy, and its viability. Notably, India has set itself a goal of generating 100 gigawatts of solar power by the year 2022.
Speaking about the challenges that dependence on solar energy might breed, managing director, Alstom India Ltd, Patrick Ledermann said, “Large penetration of wind and solar energy in the market leads to issues that need to be reckoned with. Firstly, the production of this energy is not fit with daily demand in India. The fact that the sun is an intermittent source of energy is another issue, since the peak demand is during the evening hours, when there is no sun. Hence, thermal storage technology is also necessary, so that energy can be stored for a few hours and then used during the evening when there is no sun.”