I am very sure that the images in this second chapter of our Dal Lake series are much more representative of most tourists’ experience on Dal Lake in 2024 than were the first chapter’s photos.
Forty years ago, Indian-controlled Kashmir – Dal Lake, most especially – hosted many Western visitors.
Whether “truth-seekers”/“hippies”, “adventurers”, “nature lovers”, people who preferred “luxury” accommodation, or those who relished “roughing it”, everyone who told me about their Dal Lake experiences spoke glowingly, fondly.
A “return visit” – now – would surely shock most of them.
In 1974, most of the wealthier, houseboat-hiring tourists on Dal Lake would have been Westerners.
In 2024, very few Westerners are “game” to go there; most heed their own governments’ advice that it is “too dangerous”.
However, tourism in the “vale of Kashmir” has never been bigger.
Now, most tourists in Kashmir are affluent citizens of India.
In “the season”, there are more than enough of them to “book out” every available room in and around Srinagar.
Back in 1974 the metro area of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital housed circa 485,000 permanent residents.
In 2024 Srinagar is home to circa 1,750, 000 – an increase of more than 300%.
As I type, the current calendar year’s “crop” of Srinagar-bound tourists has already exceeded the number of residents.
No prize for guessing how “the figures” – hugely increased numbers of Srinagar residents and visitors – have “played out” on Dal Lake, especially when you remember that this a “disputed” region.
(In and around Srinagar, soldiers and police abound, as does corruption. Local “autonomy” is not the local reality. Essentially, this region is ruled/misruled from Delhi. “Environmental restoration” is not entirely off the proverbial “agenda”, but it is very evident that it is not any level of government’s “top priority”)
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