Jammu Tourism organizes webinar to promote ‘Kishtwar - Land of Kashtavata’
Jammu:-
Directorate of Tourism, Jammu held its first-ever webinar
to unveil the tourism potential in Kishtwar, anciently known as Kashtavata, and
presently the biggest district in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Titled as
‘Tourism Potential in Kishtwar’, the webinar discussed the high degree of
natural beauty and unique cultural encounters that a visitor can look forward
to in this largely unexplored district.
The webinar
began with the opening remarks of the Chief Guest, Rupinder Brar, Additional
Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. She congratulated
the department for taking the initiative, and also pointed out that there’s a
lot that needs to be done.
She stated that
Kishtwar is blessed with all physical geographical features and rich cultural
heritage, and as such, has immense potential with regard to several types of
tourism, ranging from nature to ethnic tourism.
“People these
days love to be closer to nature and the trends like homestays are here to
stay. Essentially, we need to work along with the local administration and
develop upon connectivity, hospitality units, workforce quality and marketing
strategy for Kishtwar. In addition to existing GOI initiatives like NIDHI,
SAATHI, IITFC, we are planning roadshows and other promotional activities to
flag and publicize the region extensively,” she said.
Vivekanand Rai,
IRS, Director Tourism Jammu, asserted the pro-active role of Directorate of Tourism,
Jammu in promoting the region. He shared upcoming activities such as Saffron
Picking Festival, Bike Rally, besides ongoing infrastructure development, and exploring
adventure and religious tourism aspects.
Kishori Lal Ji
Sharma, JKAS, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, gave an account of the
formation of the district as in the modern times, its demographics and how the
district came to be known as ‘Land of Sapphire, Saffron, and Shrines’.
“Kishtwar
district is half of the whole Kashmir Valley. It is bound by the Great
Himalayas in the North, marked by forests, waterfalls, valleys, meadows, and
shrines, and has a calendar of cultural celebrations. It has all that is needed
to capture people’s inherent interest and provide the drive for tourism, but
yearns for sincere efforts from Directorate of Tourism Jammu,” Sharma said,
adding that the local administration is more than willing to facilitate any
promotional initiative for Kishtwar.
Nagendra Singh
Jamwal, JKAS, Registrar, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Former CEO,
Surinsar Mansar Development Authority, highlighted the unique position that
Kishtwar has in the History and Geography of the Union Territory of J&K and
Ladakh. He referred to it as Mini-India and called for exhaustive content creation
for the same.
“Kashtavata
remained famous for its natural bounties including world famous Sapphires,
timber and mountain passes across Himalayas to connect Ladakh and Kashmir with
Jammu region,” he informed.
He added,
"Kishtwar affords the best hiking treks in the UT, including the heritage
treks on the routes undertaken by Wazir Zorawar Singh to reach Suru valley in
Kargil and Ladakh through Zanskar over the Bhodkol La and Umasi La. It clearly
defines and demarcates the geography of Jammu region through Chenab watershed.”
Arvind Kotwal,
JKAS Retd, Former Deputy Director Publicity, started his talk with a time
travel back to his experiences in Kishtwar. He focused on creating activities
for tourists coming or would like to come, especially for leisure and adventure
tourism, as it is high time the tourism potential of the region is fully
realized.
“We are still
discussing the tourism potential of this region, as in all these years, we
haven’t been able to realize and market it. The USP of this region is extreme
adventure, though every tourist wouldn’t want to try that. Do we have any
leisure activity for them? Trials have already been conducted for paragliding,
rafting, but we haven’t moved ahead with them. Also, there is rarely any
factually correct and beautiful content created. The role of Tourism
Department, and Kishtwar Development Authority comes into play here,” he
mentioned.
OP Sharma
Vidyarthi, IFS, Author and Tree Talk Campaigner, said, “Kishtwar mountains are
known for sapphire, saffron, black cumin, medicinal herbs, majestic Himalayan
Tahr, Snow Leopard, Musk Deer, Monal pheasant, and so on. They need to be
developed as per time tested ethnic culture, lifestyle, faith, outlook, and
eco-friendly consumerism based on local resources, and traditional utilization
patterns. It is time to adopt sustainable eco-tourism.”
He mentioned a
few activities that can be taken up, inter alia, nature and wildlife
photography, value addition to locally available edible cum nutritional plants,
and developing biodiversity museum.
Ram Singh, an
Inspector in Jammu And Kashmir Police, and who has to his credit the summit of
Mt Everest, stressed on mountaineering and trekking opportunities in the
region.
“Peaks in Kishtwar,
including Brahma 1, 2, Agyasol and others, provide excellent climbing
experience, and many foreign summiteers have won praise for the same. We need
to give the region its due credit, and inspire others with our efforts to
explore and sell it,” he said.
Prashant
Mathawan, Co-founder, Work from Mountains, talked about the Historical and
Cultural significance of Kishtwar as on the crossroads of the Western
Himalayas.
“Kishtwar is a
melting pot of cultures, yet forced to become just another name in the book.
With concrete steps, such as development of Eco Friendly Experiential Tourism,
improved connectivity, it can become a happening destination within no time,”
he said and called for declaring Kishtwar High Altitude National Park as UNESCO
Site.
The session was
presented and moderated by Megha Sinha, a young anchor, and producer of
national repute.
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