There's more to Kashmir – like shikaras, saffron, skiing and snow

THERE are no takers for hotels and houseboats in Kashmir despite discounts of up to 70% following the massacre of 26 non-Muslim tourists at Pahalgam resort on April 22 by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.

- YOGIN DEVAN

India and Pakistan are on the brink of a wider conflict after India launched strikes on both Pakistan and Paki-stan-administered Kashmir, targeting terrorist camps.

Residents in the divided Himalayan region, known for its snow-covered peaks, fast-running streams, pictur-esque lakes and majestic Mughal-era gardens, rely heavily on tourism, but their livelihood has become one of the first victims of the latest hos-tilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

A sharp decline in militancy and a ceasefire that largely held for four years sparked a tourism boom, sending more than three million travellers to the Indian side of Kashmir last year. After the Pahalgam pogrom, there is no telling when tourists will again feel safe to go to the most picturesque high-altitude meadows in the world, lush green grasslands, dense forests, lakes, apple orchards and snow-covered mountain slopes.

My thoughts go back to December 1989. My wife and I had a choice of adding neighbouring Sri Lanka or Kashmir to our annual holiday in India. The Sri Lankan civil war, par-ticularly in the Tamil stronghold town of Jaffna, involved intense fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. | did not want to get caught up in a battle in Jaffna.

My two sons were then still in single digit ages. Kashmir sounded a better bet, although the history of conflicts and tensions between Indian and Pakistan still hung heavily over a region that must have certainly been front of the queue when God was dishing out scenic beauty.

My decision to include Kashmir on the itinerary of our India vacation was inspired by Hindi and Tamil movies.

Before entering the world of jour-nalism, I worked as a lowly-paid adver-tising salesman and called on all the cinema houses, which booked acres of space for movies. I got free tickets to movie premieres and was taken aback by the magnificent scenery of Kashmir on the silver screen.