Man has been moving from place to place in search of food, shelter and safety since time immemorial. The Aryans left their homes in Central Asia due to climate change and non-availability of sufficient food. Even today food insecurity and extreme environmental events such as cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes tend to result in the displacement of people within the country or across international borders. Here migration is not a choice but a necessity. Under normal circumstances most of the people move across the world for jobs, education, recreation, research, adventure, pilgrimage etc. Religious and pilgrimage tourism is perhaps the biggest tourism across world at present. More than 2 million people from more than 160 countries visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina annually for Hajj and Umrah accounting for revenues touching about $30 billion a year besides creating 100000 jobs for Saudis.
In India religious and pilgrimage tourism contributes 60% of the total domestic tourism. The number of devotees visiting annually Tirupati temple (A.P), Vashnu Devi temple (Katra, Jammu) and Amarnath Holy cave (Kashmir) is 30 million, 3.6 million and 0.5 million respectively. France is the leading country in world to receive more than 117 million international tourists annually followed by Poland, Mexico, USA, and Thailand as per World Bank data. India receives only 18 million tourists annually. At local levels people move to other places famous for natural beauty, calm and clean atmosphere, away from their homes and work places to get a break, to relieve, to enjoy and to do away with stress.
Kashmir is known world over for its scenic beauty, temperate climate and ancient monuments. Lush green meadows, dense evergreen pine forests, snow clad mountain peaks, flowing fresh water rivers and streams, lakes, springs, water falls, paddy fields etc. are the wonderful attractions that have mesmerized people to call it a “paradise on earth”. Although every corner/ pocket of Kashmir is a tourist destination, the famous ones include Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonamarg, Verinag, Kokernag, Dodhpathri, and Dal Lake etc. It is only because of these places that tourism industry in Kashmir is flourishing.
Besides generating employment for thousands of educated youth and skilled/ unskilled work force tourism contributes approximately 15% to the GDP of Jammu & Kashmir. Some of the primary sectors that derive benefit from tourism industry include transport, hotels and restaurants, handicrafts, house boats and shikaras, pony walas, wayside vendors and many more. However, the perpetuity of the benefits derived from tourism depends on the sustainability of the latter itself. The anthropogenic pressures in the form of poor solid waste management particularly single use plastic and unmonitored carrying capacity has threatened the healthy life span of these tourist destinations. Identification and development of new tourist destinations is one important step towards ecotourism promotion and lessening the burden of tourists on popular destinations beyond their carrying capacity.
Bangus is one such place that was added to the tourism map of J&K almost a decade ago and Bangus Development Authority was constituted to develop it and make it tourist friendly on scientific lines. Before we discuss the ecotourism potential of Bangus and its current state of development let’s know a little about this place.
Bangus (34o21’N; 74o02’E) is a vast picturesque meadow in the lap of the distal end of PirPanjal Range in District Kupwara, near Shamasbari Hills, with an average altitude of 2800m amsl. It is comprised of two interconnected parts – Bada Bangus (Bigger Bangus) and Chota Bangus (Smaller Bangus) with a total area of more than 100 sq km. The whole meadow, with a lobed shape, is surrounded by Pine forests having fir (Abiespindrow) as predominant population. Other plants growing in Bangus include deodar (Cedrusdeodara), pine (Pinuswallichiana), and birch (Betulautilis) besides hundreds of medicinal herbs. The meadow is easily accessible through public transport via Chowkibal Kupwara and NowgamHandwara. In addition to these two routes a couple of other roads leading to Bangus are under construction. A fresh water stream flows through this meadows from BadaBangus to ChotaBangus that acts as a permanent source of drinking water for hundreds of cattle and sheep grazing there.
The meadow, aptly called as Bangus valley, has become a site of attraction for local and non-local tourists due to its serenity and enchanting beauty. Hundreds of tourists in summer visit this place daily especially on holidays and Sundays. People love to stay and watch the beauty of this place during sunset when light breeze blows across the meadow coupled with formation of mosaic pattern of green and gold colour pine forests. The valley part of the meadow gets shaded earlier than the surrounding hills that receive sunlight for a longer time. Similar pattern is observed amongst the peaks; the higher peaks receive sunlight for a longer time than the lower ones.
Bangus tourism is not only contributing to economic development of this far off place but is also helping relatives and friends to assemble and chat physically who otherwise seldom find time to come together in the current age of Information & Technology. However, the gloomy part of this newly born tourist destination is the unscientific and unsustainable way we as a society are dealing with. The single use plastic in the form of packaging of fast foods that we throw away in Bangus meadow leading to its accumulation here and there has posed a serious threat to the ecosystem of this valley which is no less than a piece of heaven on earth. I have been to this place during 2011 when people hardy used to visit this place except for their personal reasons.
Government Degree College Kupwara had arranged a 3-day botanical trip to this place. More than 40 students participated and we still cherish those treasured experiences of walking in the meadow and climbing up the Bidroon and Lasher hills. The courtesy shown by Army stationed there by way of providing and pitching tents and much more is worth remembering. Recently in August 2023 I again had the opportunity to visit this place along with NSS volunteers of GDC Kupwara. It is a different place now. The positive change that I observed in Bangus is the road connectivity. One can straight way land in Chota Bangus (Smaller Bangus) via Chowkibal route without trekking even for half a kilometer. This was not the case in 2011, when we had to trek for 3 hours from Steel bridge Kishtwar, Nowgam Handwara to Bada Bangus (Bigger Bangus).
The negative change that I observed is the abundant omnipresence of throwaway single use plastic across the meadow. More than 10 tuck shops/ tea stalls are operating from the centre of Bada Bangus selling all types of plastic wrapped fast foods including cold drinks, biscuits and potato chips instead of offering natural and organic food, without even having a dustbin in the vicinity. Same is the case with Chota Bangus where a couple of such tea stalls are operating. Tourists even carry such type of packaged edibles from their homes and after cherishing them in the velvety meadow throw away the plastic in open. No check points for restricting the polythene to this place or dustbins for dumping the solid wastes are visible.
We could not see any person from Tourism Department or any voluntary body, except our NSS volunteers, collecting solid waste, particularly polythene, for safe disposal. No functional wash rooms are available. A few wash rooms sighted by us were locked and without water. No temporary shelters for visiting tourists are available that could be used during spontaneous rain showers or for taking a rest while walking from Chota Bangus to Bada Bangus. No health care facility is available in and around this meadow which at times, God forbid, could prove disastrous. We are not asking for world class facilities in Bangus but deserve to be provided with basic amenities.
India claims to have maximum population of youth at world level in comparison to other countries but no youth hostel is there to provide night accommodation to visitors, hikers, trekkers or sports persons interested in adventure sports. The meadow is not only feasible for conducting winter sports festivals at national level but could prove a wonderful destination for international sports festivals if developed on scientific and sustainable lines.
Bangus Development Authority needs to get activated and make an ecofriendly development plan for Bangus to achieve ecotourism parameters. You can’t promote tourism on unsustainable basis for a longer time. India is signatory to SDGs, adopted by UN General Assembly in 2015, as a universal call to ensure clean environment, besides achieving many other paramount goals by 2030. How could people be so callous towards their environment and how could authorities ignore the onslaught on this fragile ecosystem? An NSS volunteer student asked me while returning from the trip. I had no answer.
(Author is an Educationist and can be reached on: Email:[email protected])
