Two days after seven Amarnath Yatra pilgrims were killed after the bus they were travelling in was attacked in South Kashmir, transporters in the Valley are worried about business. At the taxi stand in Srinagar’s Tourist Reception Centre on Wednesday, dozens of vehicles waited for passengers travelling to Jammu. However, few vehicles arrived at the stand from Jammu.
Pictures of a passenger taxi damaged in Monday’s attack have caused anxiety among drivers from Jammu as well. “We are only being cautious by not going to Kashmir,” said a taxi driver speaking on the phone from Jammu. “In Kashmir, you never know when the situation worsens. It is better to be safe.”
At the taxi stand in Srinagar, business has been slow over the past year, after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, brought months of shutdown and curfews.
“Business has been down,” said Javaid, a driver. “The killings of yatris won’t be a problem, we have problems already. We go with full capacity [to Jammu] but fall short of it on the return trip. Within Kashmir, too, there isn’t much work.”
‘Business is 10% of what it used to be’
On Tuesday, as news about the attack spread, transporters, tour operators and others involved in the tourism industry were the first to hold protests. They gathered outside Press Enclave in Lal Chowk, in the heart of Srinagar, holding placards condemning the “barbaric attack”, voicing solidarity for the bereaved. Killings went against the “syncretic culture of Kashmir”, they said, “yatris are our guests”.
Ghulam Nabi, chairperson of the Tourist Taxi Operators Association, said that drivers travelling outside the Valley, into Jammu and other places, did not fear a backlash. But the attack on pilgrims could mean fewer customers. “Some people have the heart to go for pilgrimage in God’s way, many do not,” he said. “They will think it is better to undertake it next year.”
According to Nabi, there are around 30,000 taxis across the Kashmir Valley. They do brisk business during the summer months, when the pilgrimage is conducted and tourism is at its peak. “In 2016 we had done good business in the months before July,” Nabi said.
The thinning of tourist crowds has driven the rates down now. “This year, business is 10% of what it used to be,” said Nabi. “Where we earned Rs 2,000 per trip, drivers are making Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,500. For one passenger, there are 10 taxis desperate to make money.”
Bashir Matta, who heads the Transporters Welfare Association, said the Valley’s transporters wanted the pilgrims to come in great numbers. “Local people earn because of them,” he said. “We hope that pilgrim inflow is not affected, and we get these two months of business.”
Referring to the attack, Matta said that it could happen in any corner of India. “Who knows which agency was behind it,” said Matta. “Why would Kashmiris want the situation to become bad and affect us?”
He added that residents of the Valley did not “want the peace to be disturbed” during the annual pilgrimage.
Kashmir’s dependence on tourism
The unrest of 2016 had reduced the inflow of tourists – numbers went down by more than 55% from the previous year. “During 2016, the number of visitors, who arrived in the Valley stood at 6,23,932 including 2,20,490 Amarnath yatris,” said a report in the Greater Kashmir. But now, things could get worse.
Nabi said that a significant number of Kashmiris depended on tourism, and that any fall in the number of pilgrims would mean a spiral effect for hoteliers and other sight-seeing affiliated businesses. “After completing their pilgrimages, many yatris go sightseeing, giving business to hotels, shikaras, and shops,” he said.
Since June 29, when the Amarnath pilgrimage began, over 1,57,618 pilgrims have visited the shrine. Last year, 2,20,490 people went on the pilgrimage as compared with 352,771 pilgrims in 2015.
Drivers in Srinagar and in Jammu rue the impact of media coverage on business. “Media makes it look like all of Kashmir is burning,” said Javaid. “Recently when Sabzar [Hizbul Mujahideen commander] was killed, business slowed down even further. People outside thought all of Kashmir was troubled. We pay the price for every such news.”
“If anything happens in Kashmir, we suffer in Jammu as well,” the driver from Jammu said. “Tourists who come by road visit Jammu first. Another problem is that when the news says something has happened in Kashmir, tourists mistake it for the entire state.”
