New Delhi: With gentle sloping meadows fringed by dense coniferous forests and snow-capped mountains serving as its backdrop, Baisaran is a tourist’s paradise. That tranquility was shattered Tuesday afternoon by the rattle of guns, leaving blood clots on the verdant carpet of grass. And, left in uncertainty are the hundreds of taxi drivers, pony ride operators and other local tourism stakeholders.
Accessible only through pony rides or long treks, Baisaran lies 6.5 km away from Pahalgam in south Kashmir. The remote location is connected to the main town of Pahalgam by a dirt track. It remains isolated as there is no access to motor vehicles.
Over the years, the tourism department had developed opportunities for tourists to indulge in activities including zorbing, ziplining, and off-roading. “It is just like Betaab Valley, however, there is no road connectivity. And infrastructure wise, not much is available,” a former tourism director told ThePrint.
The Baisaran Valley, the former officer said, was considered ideal for trekking and off-road adventures and was only surrounded by water and dirt tracks. “People who are really passionate about offbeat sightseeing went there. While it is a beautiful valley, it’s not accessible to a lot of people,” he explained.
Baisaran is also considered an ideal campsite for trekkers, who want to go further up and visit Tulian Lake that is located about 11 km away.
The remoteness was underlined on the afternoon of 22 April, when muddy terrain made rescue efforts difficult after terrorists struck at the place popularly known as mini Switzerland of Kashmir. In the ensuing mayhem, local ponywallas came out of their way to help the terror-stricken tourists. There are several videos doing the rounds in which the pony ride operators help the injured and the distressed.
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Signals ignored?
Aadil Farooq, chairman of tourist taxi stand 2, a local taxi stand in Pahalgam, told ThePrint that Tuesday’s attack has caused panic among locals and the killing of 26 tourists was a “death of humanity”.
Local residents told ThePrint that almost a year before, security agencies had received some inputs about a possible attack during the Amarnath Yatra last year.
“During the yatra, pony services were completely closed and we had demanded a security camp from the government. For the next two months, no tourists were allowed to go there,” Farooq said, adding that tourists mainly reached the valley through ponies.
“We hadn’t demanded a big camp, but a small one. If it was there, the tragedy could have been avoided.”
Pony ride operators, he asserted, had flagged their demands on multiple occasions since they would travel to Baisaran every day. “They would feel a little unsafe. These are higher reaches and if such incidents happen, who would want to go there? Nobody wants to die.”
About 4,000 families of ponywallas depend on tourism for their livelihood in Baisaran, he said. Similarly, taxi drivers and photographers made a living by catering to visitors arriving at the valley.
Farooq added that the local stakeholders had called for cable cars, or gondolas, to make travel easier and safer for tourists, a point agreed by the former tourism director.
The retired official said that the talks about starting cable car services had been happening for over four years now, but “there was no major progress.”
In February, authorities announced that Pahalgam would receive a state-of-the-art cable car service connecting it with Baisaran. “If cable cars were already there, lives could have been safe because it took the army at least an hour to reach there,” Farooq told ThePrint.
Altaf Kaloo, the National Conference MLA from Pahalgam, told ThePrint that the terror attack has snatched earnings of local ponywallas and taxi drivers.”A taxi driver who bought a new car, was still to pay off 75 percent of his loan. Another was planning to get his daughter married by the end of this tourism season. Someone else was planning to build a home with the money earned this season. Now, it’s all gone,” he lamented.
Commenting on the killing of tourists, Kaloo said that there was a “complete failure” of security agencies, adding that a tourist destination like Baisaran was left with no security cover. “We said that in the meeting with (Chief Minister) Omar Abdullah and the L-G as well. It was a sensitive area, and security was absolutely necessary,” he said.
The National Conference legislator corroborated the taxi association head’s remarks on inputs of a possible attack last year.
After such an input was received in a “militancy-affected area”, he said, the security forces should have been alert. “Tourism is not just a sector for us, it’s a whole industry,” Kaloo said, adding that the red alert should have continued and the area should have been considered sensitive.
On Wednesday, the entire Jammu and Kashmir observed a shutdown in solidarity with those who were killed in the dastardly attack. Kaloo told ThePrint that the incident is “unjust” and that the people in Kashmir are united and against it. “Killings of innocent are not allowed in our religion. (And) this is not about religion.”
Bilal Ahmed, a local ponywalla and the president of Pony Association of Pahalgam, told ThePrint that on a daily basis, 16,000 ponies would take tourists around the valley on a daily basis until Tuesday. The incident has left the local working class without any hope for the future, he said.
“We don’t think we will be able to recover from the incident this season anymore,” he said, adding that the killings have left the people disturbed.
Ahmed was taking the tourists back to Pahalgam from Baisaran when he heard about the attack by terrorists. After dropping them off at a safe location, he moved back to the valley to help the tourists and safely brought out many injured. “While we took many of them to safe places, we knew that our livelihoods were completely crushed. There is a lot of mental pressure on us. It is about the killings as well as our livelihoods,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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