Empty Shikaras, Desolate Hotels: Is Withdrawal of Travel Ban Enough to Save Kashmir’s Tourism Sector?

Sitting on the porch of a houseboat against the finely-hewed walnut wood expanse, Moomin Ahmad spends his days lonesome. A pervasive silence has engulfed the Dal Lake in Srinagar. The operators of shikaris (arched boats) are fast asleep on the boats’ cozy seats, hopeless of finding a customer they can take for a ride in the floating market, past the shade of chinar trees. The only activity in the calm waters of the lake is that of anglers, who are sitting on the decks of decades-old but well-furnished houseboats—waiting slothfully to catch fish.

Kashmir was in a panic as it entered the first week of August. The government, after calling around 40,000 additional troops to the Valley, issued an advisory for all the tourists, asking them to leave immediately. This was something that happened for the first time in the turbulent history of Kashmir.