Shikargah craves for Govt attention
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Shikargah craves for Govt attention

The vast tourist potential of the place has remain untapped

Post by on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

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Tral, Feb 10: Located atop the Tral town in south Kashmir and surrounded by dense jungles on all sides, Shikargah has everything a tourist looks for and it could very well be one of the most attractive tourist destinations of Kashmir-except that it has been consistently ignored by the government and its potential has thus remained untapped.

Once known as an attractive tourist destination and favourite hunting place for the Maharaja Hari Singh, Shikargah is also known for the Hangul Conservation Breeding Centre, but the place is now craving for development.

According to the locals, the Maharaja used to visit this place often for wildlife hunting and it was because of his frequent visits to the place that the place came to be known as Shikargah, which literally means ‘a place for hunting’. 

Shikargah consists of a small hamlet situated at the intersection of Wasturwen and Kherwon mountains in Tral Township of the district Pulwama. But access to the place was cut-off and roads leading to Shikaragah sealed with barbed wires due to security concerns during the 90s. On the main Tral-Shikargah road, camps of a number of agencies– Army, CRPF, BSF and police were set up.

However, in 2011, the road as well as the Shikaragh Park was thrown open for the public with an aim to boost the local economy. Since then, the tourist inflow has increased and every year hundreds of locals, including students, visit this place.

For local tourists, the place is like Gulmarg because of the serene meadows and lush pines. Shikargah lies at an altitude of 2,130m and about 43-Kms away from the summer capital Srinagar.

The locals, however, lament that Shikargah, which is only about 3 kilometres away from sub-district headquarters Tral, has been neglected by the Tourism department.

Locals and trade unions of Tral are demanding the removal of an Army camp at the entry point to Shikargah. “The camps are a hassle and tourists visiting the place feel as if the place is dangerous. Whenever tourists visit Shikargah, the Army checks their identity cards and also restricts their movement, causing distaste to the people who come to have a good time at the place. Most of them never return to the place,” said Shabir Ahmad, a shopkeeper. 

Locals also claim that concerned authorities have neglected the tourism potential of the town. “During all these years, the government should have at least constructed washrooms for tourists. Besides that, better transport facilities, proper parking space and shops are required to make Shikargah a developed tourist destination,” says Rehan Ahmad, a local resident of Shikargah.

“Besides Shikargah, there are other places like Nag Baeren (upper Dachigam), Nagpather, Narastan, Aripal and Gufkral. These places have tremendous potential of being among the top tourist destinations in the valley. The authorities should develop these places along with Shikargah and promote them as new and unexplored destinations for the tourists,” the locals told Rising Kashmir.

“ While the government has announced that it will develop Shikargah as a picnic spot in Tral to boost tourism in the area and announced plans to connect Tral with Pahalgam through a trekking route,  there is still a lot to be done on the ground to make Shikargah  a part of a bigger tourist circuit, boosting the local economy,” the locals said.

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