More than 40% of tourists who travel to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir are pilgrims to two Hindu shrines — Vaishno Devi in Jammu and Amarnath in Kashmir. An average pilgrim spends three or four days in the UT. The administration is now trying to encourage visitors to stay longer and see more within J&K during their visit in the ongoing period of Navaratri, which sees a significant surge in pilgrims to Vaishno Devi. The new attractions include Mata Ki Chauki (singing of devotional songs in praise of the mother goddess), daily Ramlila shows, prabhat pheris (in Katra, morning religious processions featuring artistes from different States), decorated ‘Shiva-Parvati’ tableaux with folk dances from different States, laser shows, garba dancing nights, devotional song competitions, and special tourist packages to sites across J&K. The administration has tied up with tour operators and other stakeholders to offer special short packages.
The Amarnath Yatra has also seen arrangements on a grand scale. The number of tents en route to the shrine were increased from 29,000 in 2018 to 70,000 this year. Patnitop, Sanasar and Bhaderwah in the Jammu division could become the go-to places that feed off the Vaishno Devi circuit. Pilgrims who complete their yatra can consider whistle-stop tours of Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam in Kashmir. Sources in the J&K Tourism Department said the highest-ever footfall to date was 1.6 crore, and the administration expects by the end of the year, the number will cross 2 crore.
Meanwhile, unprecedented and unregulated tourist footfall to Kashmir’s high-altitude trekking sites has posed a major threat to ecologically fragile high-altitude alpine lakes. The Tourism Department in Kashmir has been alarmed by unusual littering of plastic and polythene trash along the 72-km trek trail to famous lakes. In a cleanliness drive, volunteers collected heaps of garbage, “having potential to increase ground temperature in the long run” in the Harmukh mountain range of Himalayas. The Tourism Department plans to make it mandatory for trekkers to videograph treatment of trash once they return from the trek and submit it.
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