By Kavita Bajeli-Datt, IANS
New Delhi : Concerned over the environmental impact of a road being built in Jammu and Kashmir’s spectacular Zanskar area, also known as India’s grand canyon, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni says she will take up the matter with the state government.
“Some foreign travellers have expressed concern about the road being built at the Zanskar river. I will raise the matter with the Kashmir chief minister,” Soni told IANS.
Soni said she wants Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to reconsider the project and was hoping to speak to him about it at the National Development Council (NDC) meeting Dec 19 but did not get a chance.
“He was busy so I told his OSD (officer on special duty) about the issue. He told me that the chief minister would speak to me about it,” she said, adding that she has taken the matter seriously.
“We don’t want that the ecology of the area to be affected,” Soni said.
The road is being built over the Zanskar river in Ladakh to connect the two areas of Neemu and Padum, the district headquarters. But in the process, it will endanger a vast stretch of wilderness.
Zanskar river, which freezes during winter for a month, is a virtual paradise for adventure tourists who love to trek through the 150 km-long snow-laden gorge that passes through Neemu to Padum.
John Yost, co-founder of Mountain Travel Sobek, a US-based travel company who brought the matter to the notice of the tourism minister, said he was “heartbroken” to see the road being built.
“I led two rafting trips on the Zanskar river last summer and was heartbroken to see the road being built along its canyon. One of the grandest places on earth, as stunning as the Grand Canyon in the US, is being sacrificed to someone’s definition of progress,” he said.
Yost, who was in New Delhi to attend the 6th Annual Convention of the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI) on “Indian Adventure Tourism – the Next Step”, said, “Adventure travel, like wildlife, needs habitat.
“With each natural gem lost beneath another layer of concrete, you have one less place to bring your clients,” he said.
British tour operator Steven Berry said it is an “incredible area” but politicians for “short term gain” are destroying it.
“When they realise what they have done, they will regret it. The Himalayas are the greatest asset of India and the government should protect its environment,” he said on the sidelines of the convention.
Mandip Singh Soin, an explorer and eco-tourism expert, said the area was the ultimate adventure spot as it served as a place for rafting during summers and trekking during winters.
“Adventure enthusiasts love to trek through the gorge. It is also the best river to raft,” he said.
Soin said the government was trying to build a road that connects the two areas of Neemu and Padum. “They will be destroying this pristine wilderness area. The adventure will be lost,” he said.
Soin, who was the first to take an Indo-British expedition to the river in 1994, said the government should instead construct a walking tract for locals who benefit from tourism.
“We don’t think the locals are for construction of the road as they earn through this high-end tourism. If the road comes up, the last great wilderness area will be lost to India,” said Soin, who is also the founder of the international award winning adventure travel and eco-tourism company Ibex Expeditions.