Mir Mudasir
With an eye on a good tourism season this year, the J&K government has initiated a series of steps to give a boost to the tourism sector and new tourist destinations are being opened for tour lovers both locals and those who visit J&K from different parts of the country.
Even for adventure lovers the government has thrown open dozens of trekking routes which tread through wild and virgin routes of Kashmir amid gushing streams, serene glaciers, lakes and the vast meadows surrounded by Pine and Kail forests and trekking on these routes will be soothing for the trekkers and adventure lovers.
These routes are located across UT even some are close to Line of Control. Officials say these 75 routes are off-beat locations in Jammu and Kashmir and trail deep inside forests providing a thrilling experience to the adventure seekers, trekkers and the tourists who are the aficionados of nature’s wilderness.
Conservator of Forests, North, Irfan Rasool said the basic aim of opening these tracks is that people should visit these offbeat locations. “Our motto is to popularise these beautiful locations. Besides local trekkers, this also targets a specific group of tourists who love adventure travel. It will also create livelihood in the villages on forest fringes through home-stays, nature guides, trek operators, food stalls and forest souvenirs.”
Rasool said that forest staff accompany the groups free of cost for the time being and make their travel easy. “It’s currently free. Gradually we want to train locals to assist the trekkers,” he said.
Irfan Rasool has even encouraged locals to take up part in trekking expeditions. “Why only outsiders locals should also be part of expeditions. They will experience new world and places.”
The fresh routes have been identified by the Jammu and Kashmir’s forest department divided into six circles – Srinagar, South, North, East, West and Chenab circles with each circle having more than 10 identified trekking routes with maps and everything. North circle which comprise Baramulla and Kupwara districts and has highest 26 identified routes -some close to the Line of Control
Similarly Srinagar and south circles have more than 20 routes, some trekking routes are within the city- located on both the sides of river Jhelum and surrounded by mountains and traversed with hill ranges. Mughal Gardens in Srinagar lie on the foothills of Zabarwan range.
In the Jammu division, as many as 24 trekking routes in the forests of Jammu, Kathua, Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Kishtwar and Doda have been identified. Besides along the length of the tracks, the department has provided every information about these routes maps as well as nearby tourist spots.
Jalal Jeelani, a trekker from Kashmir who is part of renowned Pathfinder trekking group, termed the opening of new trails as a praiseworthy step in the right direction.
“For regular trekkers, there are many benefits of nature treks through the Alpine forests,” he said, adding that besides physical, mental and social health benefits trekkers also become forest guardians in different ways. “Be that a deterrent to destructive human activities or be that preventing timber smuggling, caretaker in preventing forest fires, land encroachments, preventing drug addiction, and other antisocial activities.”
Jeelani who also makes short films of trekking tours said that trekking also turns people as wildlife warriors, habitat saviour, and animal lovers while trudging the forests. “Once you reach a mountain peak, you get filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity. The tangible endurance in nature, where everything else just falls away, you keep observing the creator’s design, the uniformity, the changeability, the multiplicity and experiencing what’s around you becomes a life.”
He said along with other trekkers, in the past few months they trekked places close to Line of Control, like Baba Qazinag, Chordkhuddon, Salamabad, SimGali, Trikanjan that were completely cutoff from the civilian movements just a year back. “We explored these places with the help of the forest department.”
Another trekker, Tariq Mughloo said more and more youths are now into trekking and show interest in exploring new places in their own Valley. “Being a nature lover this is one of the best steps taken by the government. This will motivate our younger generation towards trekking and exploration of nature. We have already trekked many locations but with new routes thrown open more and more youth will be trekking.”
He said regular trekking will keep our younger generation in good health and away from drugs. “We even did some snow trekking during winters.”
Many of these young trekkers then post their experience and travels on the social media for motivation with a message asking young men and women to leave warm environs and enjoy nature around when everything is wrapped in the white snow
The Kashmir is already witnessing an uptick in tourist arrivals in the first two months. Already more than two lakh tourists have visited Kashmir and of these one lakh have visited the famous ski resort Gulmarg. The tourism officials are hopeful the opening of routes will attract a new class of tourists towards Kashmir, especially adventure lovers. “We have everything for adventure tourism. Hope with covid gone, things will turn around in the tourism sector,” the official said.
