With the second Covid-19 wave abating, Jammu and Kashmir administration and Kashmir’s tourism stakeholders are looking forward to a renewed inflow of tourists. There is hope for a bumper tourist season like the one from November 2020 to March 2021 that followed the end of the first wave. Thousands flew in monthly over these five months leading to the occupation of almost all hotel rooms in Gulmarg and Srinagar.
The data shared by the tourism department suggest that 1.13 lakh tourists arrived in Kashmir during the period, a figure that the then union tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel told the parliament at the time had broken the record of the past 16 years. A part of the reason that the tourists visited Kashmir in large numbers was the ban on international travel due to the pandemic. Besides, the snow, a novelty for most Indians, and Kashmir’s reputation as “a paradise on earth.” drew visitors from across India.
FOOTFALLS AND COVID19
While the tourist arrivals gave a boost to Kashmir’s economy following two years of a slump due in large part to the prevailing political turmoil and the Covid-19 lockdown, people also blamed the advent of the second wave in the Valley to the unchecked footfalls. And this was true to a large extent. The alarming rise in Covid-19 infections through April and May was traced to mutated strains of the virus detected in states like Maharashtra. According to an official estimate then, the travellers and tourists who arrived in Jammu and Kashmir during the first three weeks of April accounted for 35 per cent of the total infections recorded in the region during the period.
Denne historien er fra July 17, 2021-utgaven av Kashmir Life.
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Denne historien er fra July 17, 2021-utgaven av Kashmir Life.
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Before The Kabul Retreat
Described as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’, Afghanistan was always termed to be at peace when it was at war. But the land-locked desert country that was always in turmoil and one of the worst targets of the Great Game suffered immensely throughout, especially in the last 40 years, Masood Hussain writes
FINGERS CROSSED
Almost everybody in academia and politics that Khalid Bashir Gura spoke to, the response over Kabul happens was simple – wait and watch
Parliamentary Committee In Srinagar
The visiting 28-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs have had detailed interactions with top civil administration and discussed developmental scenario and people’s welfare measures in Jammu and Kashmir. It is on a 4-day visit. Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma is heading the committee.
MUSIC IN MUD HOUSE
Deep into north Kashmir, Faheem Mir meet a small community that sings and lives on folk music but is facing a tense situation in the last few years
THE KABUL SPILLOVER?
Security experts are divided over the possible impact of the Kabul situation on Kashmir. But the dramatic Taliban triumph has altered the region’s geopolitics, for the time being, writes Riyaz Wani
Durga Bhawan At Katra
To enhancing facilities for the convenience of the Vaishno Devi pilgrims, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation for the Durga Bhawan, a high utility pilgrim-centric facility worth Rs 24.4 crore. The facility will accommodate 4000 pilgrims.
Women Empowerment
In the first, 480 talented girls from Jammu and Kashmir were included in the degree and diploma courses of the Pragati Scholarship. Jammu and Kashmir has also got nine scholarships under the Saksham Scheme for Persons with Disabilities.
‘SOME HISTORIANS BELIEVE THAT AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT IS THE OUTCOME OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN KASHMIR STAND-OFF'
Foreign policy expert and editor of HardNews magazine, Sanjay Kapoor believes that Taliban 2.0 has more legitimacy unlike in the past as it had signed a deal with the US and negotiated with other countries of the region, but the final verdict can be passed only after it manages ticklish issues involving half of its population, the women
Boredom Is Creative?
Getting bored is not as boring as it gets, writes Azra Hussain
LG In Bangus
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha inaugurated the Bungus Awaam Mela amidst grand arrangements for village games, exhilarating local performances, and other activities to celebrate the 75th year of Independence.
