Aherbal: Crown Jewel of Kulgam

Kashmir is undoubtedly dotted with numerous picturesque places across its length and breadth. From vast green pastures and magnificent snow-capped mountain ranges to pristine water bodies and verdant valleys, Kashmir has everything to offer to the enthusiastic nature lovers, trekkers, hikers etc. Its scenic beauty has fascinated all and sundry since antiquity. The oft-used sobriquet of ‘paradise on earth’ for Kashmir may have worn out due to the prevailing political uncertainty, and sounds more of a cliché now. Nevertheless, it still retains some semblance of its former sheen and glory. A good number of tourists visiting the valley every year bears this out.

The ongoing pandemic has affected every facet of our lives, but it has not been able to keep the nature lovers at bay, at least in our part of the world. Despite our valley, like the rest of the world, being in the midst of a virulent pandemic, tourist places are eagerly sought-after places these days. Hardly were the public parks thrown open to public that the lockdown-fatigued people started thronging them in droves apparently to shed off the wearisomeness of lockdowns. Tourism, which had come to a grinding halt, picked up some pace with nature lovers scurrying to the tourist places like never before.

Though not an avid nature lover, I went to Aherbal, a well-known tourist attraction in Kulgam, more than a fortnight ago. I took my grandmother along on her insistence as she had never been to it. The place was humming with nature lovers who had come from different places of Kashmir. There can be no better sojourn than Aherbal to beat the scorching summer heat. It’s chilly environs and obviously the grand waterfall have made it emerge as a mecca especially for adrenaline junkies. It is an ideal place for a languid break from the monotony of staying indoors because of the lockdowns since last August.

Some 22 kilometres from Kulgam, and rightly called the Niagara Falls of Kashmir, Aherbal is nestled in lush green forests with towering pine and fir trees, resplendent meadows and lofty Pir Panjal mountains. It is well connected by macadamized roads from both Kulgam and Shopian districts. If you are coming from Kulgam side via Nihama, you would be wise to make a detour at Bhatipora. A narrow road that branches off the main road from here passes through expansive apple orchards, and cuts the journey by a few kilometres. It passes through several beautiful villages, which are in their ownselves ideal for rural tourism. Riding through these places is amazing, and makes the journey to Aherbal enjoyable.

As you reach Aherbal, you are immediately greeted by a well-maintained, sprawling park which is bisected by a long, straight and slightly raised tiled walkway which, on the side of the waterfall, merges with the deftly built winding and steep stone stairway descending to it. The valley becomes more exquisite on the descent, where the turquoise waters of the fall flow in a gorge with steep rocky walls on both the sides. It is indeed an onerous task to reach the fall, but is worth it. After the lengthy descent, your eyes are rewarded by a vista of the majestic waterfall. One just stands in amazement while catching its first glimpse. Watching the oceanic blue waters cascade down rapidly over the rocks is enchanting and delightful to the eyes. Water roars tumultuously over the edges, and hits the water and rocks below forming a plume of mist. If it is a bright sunny and breezy day, the ideal conditions for a rainbow, it can make the moment really jaw dropping.

For the weak hearted, this is not the place to go too near it. One can just bask in the breath-taking view from the park overlooking it. However, watching from the above offers a limited view of what lies of the vista below. The trip will not be worth it if one does not go down to see the gushing waters up close. Visitors can safely enjoy the view of the mesmerising fall from the vantage points of their choosing without going near the danger spot. It offered the clearest view, but has thankfully been fenced now for the safety of the public.

The excitement of going with my grandmother died out soon and turned out to be kind of a damp squib. Many elderly people including my grandmother had come for the first time to have their maiden glimpse of the waterfall. However, they could not make to it owing to their old age and some underlying complications. Travelling can be challenging to them with so many barriers depriving them of the right to enjoy nature. While the world is talking of making disabled friendly cities, we have not even been able to make sightseeing easier for our elderly and disabled people. At some time in our life, we are physically disabled in one way or the other. Therefore, imagining ourselves in the Rawlsian veil of ignorance we need to revisit and fine tune the infrastructure accordingly to make the nature accessible to all.

Aherbal Development Authority (ADA) has over the years done a commendable job to make the place safer as well as alluring for visitors. Chain-link iron fencing has been diligently done to stop anyone from going too near the waterfall. However, wide holes have been cut in the fence at many places, including the danger spot mentioned above, which need to be fixed. As stated above, we should strive towards making these places accessible to all. Therefore, ADA should furnish the place with ramps at appropriate places, and walkways should be paved with non-slippery tiles so that the elderly and disabled do not have difficulty waking. If possible, ADA should also consider installing stairlift for the benefit of weak and disabled visitors. Visible and clear signage should also be put up to guide the first timers properly. ATM services, at least in the peak season should also be made available. If these things are taken care of, I think it will go a long way in attracting more and more tourists.

Other locales worth exploring and rich in natural beauty en route Aherbal are Kungwatan and Chiranbel. They are within easy-to-reach distance from Aherbal. Kungwatan, known for its meadow land, is higher up about five kilometres from Aherbal. It takes about half an hour on foot to reach there. Chiranbel, an alpine meadow, is equally bewitching. It can be reached from Hallan, Manzgam or from Avil village.

A Smorgasbord of tourist attractions, Aherbal is truly the crown jewel of Kulgam. Its ambience and serene surroundings make it an ideal place for an outing with friends and family. A day spent there makes for everlasting memories.

Also read at https://kashmirreader.com/2020/08/07/aherbal-crown-jewel-of-kulgam/

Living in the Times of Pandemic

Karl Marx opens his influential The Communist Manifesto with these threateningly inauspicious lines, “A spectre is haunting Europe- the spectre of communism”. It has almost been 200 years after Marx wrote it in the context of injustices faced by working class in his time. Coming to the present another spectre has come to haunt not only the poor but the entire world. It has not respected the national boundaries while traveling to them from infected people. However, its impact has been felt differently across and within the nations.

From initially originating in Wuhan, China in the end of the last year, it has spread like wild fire to almost every nook and cranny of the world. It has wreaked havoc through the length and breadth of the globe since its emergence. Both powerful and weak states have been rendered literally dysfunctional and brought to knees crumbling under the nano atom’s weight of a tiny virus. The initial response by the countries was different depending on the capacities and resources available to the individual states. While others were too quick to realise the impending disaster. They swiftly put in place effective measure to arrest its rapid spread. This agility on their part helped in flattening the curve, and prevent it from shooting up sharply. Some were late to react, and thus the consequences have been colossal both financially and in terms of the loss of precious human lives. Nonetheless, it seems that it is not going away anytime soon till an effective antidote or a vaccine is developed. Till a reliable remedy is found, people must brace up for a coronavirus infected world, and learn to live with this stark reality.

Although China has apparently been ‘successful’ in containing it by enforcing a strict lockdown, the epicentre has now shifted to Europe and America. It has shattered these countries despite the fact that the have relatively efficient health care systems in the world. However, devastated the virus may have left them, all their resources are at the disposal to mitigate the consequences.
As far as India is concerned, its early response was not as robust and meticulous as it should have been keeping in view the gravity of the precarious situation that had been unfolding in other countries over the weeks. First case was reported on January 30. Government dismissed the initial positives as one-offs and outrightly denied any local transmission having occurred prompting many think-tanks and organisations to paint a terrible picture of India in their reports. They have warned that it could become the next Coronavirus hotspot. However, only time will tell how far they were right in their assessments. As we are into lockdown 4.0, lot will depend on how India’s response unfolds and evolves in the coming months when restrictions that are currently in place are further gradually eased. How lockdown fatigued people behave in public places post lifting of restrictions will also have a significant bearing on the final outcome.

While the elite and other well-off sections are relatively better placed to insulate themselves from being affected severely by the highly infectious virus, it is usually the economically weaker people, migrant labourers and other dispossessed and oppressed groups who are at the receiving end. When the state institutions and safety net mechanisms fail to cater to people, it is invariably these people who have to bear the brunt of the systematic failures. The mitigative measures announced subsequently, many believed were too late and insufficient. Left high and dry with frequent extensions of lockdown measures, one can see them, in the visuals on news channels and videos circulated on social media, screaming and running helter-skelter to save themselves. Social and economic safety net set up by the government has so far proved inadequate to the teeming millions in view of the rising prices caused by shortages in the essentials.

That India is glaringly caste and class divided country is not any rocket science to understand. Coronavirus has only lifted the cloak of ‘sab ka saat, sab ka vikas’ off the body politic. The political slogan entailed stamping out social and economic inequalities that are so widespread today than ever. The facts on the ground speak contrary to what is conveyed through catch but often deceptive phrases. For instance, according to Oxfam study Time to Care, India’s richest 1 per cent possess more than four-times the wealth held by bottom 70 per cent, which is a whopping 953 million people of the country’s population. These blatant inequalities in turn reduce people’s access to the vital health services. Inequality undermines the autonomy of the poor and thus results in discrimination in varied forms in the society. Discrimination against the Other can be both institutional and systemic. It then spills over onto the streets on daily basis. The pandemic has only made the matters worse for the millions of starving poor and people from the religious and ethnic minorites. Just surfing social media, one comes to know about the lynching of some hapless fellow from a minority community in broad daylight under the nose of the authorities. In such a scenario, the economically vulnerable sections are going to suffer more if social security measures already announced are not correspondingly backed up by systematic pro people reforms.

For these unfortunate souls, starvations in an uglier virus than the Covid-19. Millions of migrant labourers were caught unawares when the lockdown was announced giving them a short notice to plan things ahead. Displaced from work and cut from homes, they were left to themselves to face the misery of internal ‘exile’. Thus, caught between a devil and a deep sea these people do not give a toss to lockdown measures when two times meals are all that they want. In this distressing quandary whether to stick to lockdown or to flout rules to eke out a day’s living, it only compounds their anxieties. It ruins their health, chokes off the education of their children, impacts their employment and bodes ill not only for them but also to India’s future.

For a nation that prides in its constitution deeply concerned with justice, suicides, or for that matter any kind of discrimination and injustice triggered by the lockdown or any institutional malfeasance should be an abomination. Rather than the coronavirus, it is the destitution of millions that threatens the future of India.
Also read here;
http://risingkashmir.com/news/living-in-the-times-of-pandemic