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| Hoteliers throwing debris in forests, Gulmarag turned into garbage dump | | |  Mohammad Sarfaraz
Early Times Report
Gulmarag, May 16: Attribute it to the criminal neglect of the hoteliers, the world famous tourist resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam in Kashmir valley are fast turning into garbage dump and tourists are preferring to look for alternative sites.
In discriminate dumping of garbage in forests and along the streams is a major reason behind Kashmir losing the tourists thick and fast. Piles of garbage, polythene, cow dung are being dumped on roadsides, presenting a shabby picture of the entire area that once was the most preferred tourist destination for domestic as well as foreign tourists.
However sources said that according to reports the JK government is spending huge money to advertise Kashmir and trying to get it back on the regional and global tourist map, but it seems that it has not yet managed any notable success so for.
Sources alleged that the stakeholders in the tourism industry also complain that the travel agents in other parts of major towns don't promote Kashmir as a tourism destination, and that is the reason, there is acute decline in tourists from different places of the world.
A local from Srinagar, Shahnaz Ahmad said that, "I was there in Gulmarag and hardly any tourist and one can understand that it is all because of poor maintenance and performance of the tourism department.
"They spend lakhs on tourist development projects but practically they are themselves responsible for destroying the industry. As you can see piles of garbage" he rued.
Social activist, Syed Mushtaq said that the waste thrown in the forest areas had large quantities of biomedical waste like used bandages and dressings, infusion kits, unwanted microbiological cultures, needles and scalpels from hospitals and other garbage from hotels and restaurants.
The concerned department has allowed hoteliers to throw all kind of waste on the most scenic spots, but they have also failed to provide adequate disposal systems for solid and liquid waste, Mushtaq added. |
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