It is spring in Srinagar. At 5 p.m., dark clouds rush in from the Zabarwan hills in the east over the Dal Lake. The sun begins to descend behind the Pir Panjal mountain range in the west. Shades of crimson paint the sky. For first-time visitors to the Kashmir Valley, this is a selfie moment that needs to be captured on their phones. For the 1,200 shikaras (wooden boats), many of which are festooned with lights, flowers and balloons, the day has just begun. This is the time when tourists arrive in droves and converge around the famous lake.
Kashmir has been through a difficult time over the last few years. First, stringent security measures were imposed and communication channels snapped for many months after the Central government decided to end Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status on August 5, 2019. Then came the pandemic, and the flow of tourists came to a grinding halt during the months of the nationwide lockdown (it increased substantially thereafter). But today, Kashmir has already played host to a record 3.5 lakh tourists in the first three months of the year, which are otherwise considered a lean period. The Deputy Director of Tourism, Ahsanul Haq Chisti, is hopeful that the numbers will keep rising. He looks forward to breaking a decade-old record when 13 lakh tourists visited Kashmir in a year. “The projections are on the higher side,” Chisti said.
