The recent outrage by landslides following cloud burst has ravaged five out of 11 hill Districts of Uttarakhand.
This has brought the tourism to almost stand still rendering more than one million people jobless. The roads leading to Badri-Kedar and even to Mussoorie have borne a deserted look. Even at Nainital the number of tourists has reached to a record low. In the year 2012, total 12 lakh tourists had visited Mussoorie. The number of those visited Nainital was 9 lakh. The number was almost the same that visited Badrinath. But this year after mid of June the number of tourists have dwindled even to Almora, Ranikhet where hardly any damage was occurred to the roads.
Now the question is, should the state of affair be allowed to go on with its natural pace or some administrative interventions are needed. As and when the roads are restored after the closure of the monsoon, the inflow of tourist is likely to pick up. But since the Kedarnath calamity has given us lessons, we can move further with certain corrective measures particularly by limiting the tourist flow to the areas higher than 9 thousand feet. We will have to diffuse the pressure of tourists to middle altitude destinations. For example we can publicise Adibadri the first among the Panch Badris to be a pilgrimage centre as it used to be before the early sixties when no motor road was to connect Karnaprayag with Ranikhet. with the advent of motor road this pilgrimage centre went to oblivion.
By publicising Adibadri and Dwarahat, the tourists coming to Nainital, Ranikhet and Almora can be given an alternate route for their return journey. The tourists coming to Almora can descend to Dwarahat and follow a route to Karnaprayag and then to Rishikesh via Adibadri.On the other hand people coming to Badrinath can also take the Ranikhet route via Adibadri to touch the plains at Haldwani. Dwarahat and Adibadri both have rich architectural heritage but least of staying facilities. Between Dwarahat and Adibadri falls Gairsain where there is a small guest house of Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam. Due to non availability of stay facilities, the travelling agents also do not favour these spots and thus the route connecting Garhwal and Kumaon could not come to the tourist itinerary so far.
On visiting Dwarahat, the writer was shocked to see that the Government has built a tourist information centre there, but its location is such that hardly any tourist has ever visited there. It is sheer wastage of lakhs of rupees. Same is the case with Adibadri where construction of a Government Tourist lodge was started some 8 years ago but it is still incomplete. A PWD bungalow that was constructed by Britishers in 1905 at Adibadri is in utter disrepair. At Sonla, Nagrasu and number of other places these bungalows have been left dilapidated.
About a decade ago a conclave was held by Tourism Department with a bang in Mussoorie and several tourist circuits were contemplated on but with no outcome. That time professional firms from metros were outsourced to prepare the blue print for the tourism in Uttarakhand but nothing new could see the light of the day.
Now, we can go on our own to fuse the traditional pilgrimage with the tourism. The tourism however we can confine to the middle altitude spots. The on foot journey to the high altitude pilgrim centres can be revived and in ‘darshan’ the on foot pilgrims can be given priority in the same manner as the devotees of ‘Ayappa’ are given during their pilgrimage in the shrines in Southern states. As an experiment, we can revive the pedestal pilgrimage from Rishikesh to Badrinath. The old ‘chattis’ at every 12 miles along the track can be set up as were there during old days. By doing so we can put upside down the wrong tradition that we had inadvertently laid of giving priority to those coming by helicopters. In fact pilgrimage by helicopters should be totally banned. Unruly bikers, people coming by trucks and even the ‘kaanwarias’ can also be dissuaded.
To attract affluent tourists, open theatres can be created in league with the one at Darjeeling where cultural dances can be made a routine feature. The tourists can buy tickets to see the performances. This, besides giving a pass time to the tourists and providing employment to talented youth would help conserve cultural heritage too.
Chandra Singh Garhwali scheme has given dividends in the past and this can be revamped with more funds earmarked to it. After all tourism has been main stay of Uttarakhand hills and in future too, no calamity should be allowed to snatch away this source of employment.