Kulsoom Nizamuddin

Kashmir's Tourism Suffers When Conflict Erupts

by Kulsoom Nizamuddin
- Indian-administered Kashmir -


- In a continuing cycle of conflict, fresh violence broke out this week in Kashmir, heightening tensions and confining everyone to their homes as a blanket curfew was put into effect in Srinagar. - Ed.


• A shikarawalla waits for customers on Dal Lake. Photograph by Ajay Tallman. •
Mohammad Rafeeq, 55, is a shikarawalla who starts his day at 7am, waiting on the banks of Dal Lake with his wooden boat, hoping to find tourists to take for a ride. Today, he’ll be lucky to find a few. According to Rafeeq, before 1989, he could hardly find time to rest, so packed with tourists was his shikara. He never imagined that violence would cause his happiness to be so short lived. Rafeeq says, “Out of 1500 Rs per day (US$35), I was able to provide my family with at least food and clothes, though I couldn’t afford to educate my children. These days it’s even difficult to manage and whatever little I earn it is spent on medicine for my sick wife. I ferry only two or three tourist families per day - if it continues like this, my family will die of starvation.” Now, his income is 200 rupees a day or less.

Rafeeq is not the only one whose business has been hit badly due to tourism decline. Once a hot destination for tourists, Kashmir’s tourism industry has suffered a major set back since the outset of violence and armed struggle against Indian occupation in 1989.

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