BHADERWAH
The place known as Naagbhumi, “land of snakes” is a valley bewitching natural beauty and panoramic vistas which have earned it epithet of ‘Chhota Kashmir’. Bhaderwah offers to tourist a variety of beautiful landscapes, colourful local fairs, joyous festival mood and unique mosaic of culture.
Its distinctive moods change with the seasons. In winters the valley is carpeted with snow and in summer and springs it is ablaze with colours of the flowers that blossom all over the place. Bhaderwah is also a land of fairs and festivals like Mela Pat, Sobar Dhar Mela, Kud dance, Pahari folk songs and music.
It also has heritage sites like the Fort, hundred years old mosque and ancient Vasuki Nag Temple, Gupt Ganga temple, Chandi Mata temple Chinote etc.This place have so much to offer but packes due to Governments ignorence and which causes impact on both the land and the people live here .
As Govt is launching new scheme and project to make Jammu and Kashmir beautiful and developed in its best possible way but in all these years Bhaderwah has continuosly being ignored .People for the valley feel that they are ignored by the government from development, tourism and hospitality loss in everything, this place is full of natural resources that make this place a real gem but due to ignorance from the government we are far behind from the rest of UT.
As,The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Union Budget for 2022-23, had announced the National Ropeways Development Programme—“Parvatmala” for Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and North-East.Stating that the idea was to improve connectivity and convenience for commuters besides promoting tourism, the Union Minister had stated that developing an efficient transport network is a big challenge in the hilly areas.Among these six destinations from J&K are Shiv Khori cave shrine in Reasi district, seven lakes in Rajouri-Poonch and Ramban to Sanasar in Jammu region and Shankaracharya Temple on the Zabarwan Range in Srinagar and one location in Sonamarg in Kashmir valley.But the question is why isn’t Bhaderwah on the list. Irrespective of all the things available here.
Ankit Kotwal a prominent businessman and social worker said “This is not for the first time that Bhaderwah is given a raw deal but it has been a past practice.“They are concerned for promotion of tourism in rest of Jammu and Kashmir in their scheme of things as they do not want Bhaderwah to be brought on tourism map of country though it has a lot of potential for adventure as well as pilgrimage tourism,”
He added that the people practically working on ground for promotion of tourism in the State are not being invited in any such conferences where tourism is discussed.Disappointly he added that we could only
hope for the best to come someday!!? He also added that despite of many delegations and presentation to the MP of our constituency and honourable minister at PMO Dr Jatinder Singh nothing is being done for the development of tourism of Bhaderwah sector which was proved in the last sanctioning of 6 rope ways 3 each for Jammu and Kashmir regions but Bhaderwah stands neglected despite of many verbal assurances by these so called leaders of the area.
View’s were substantiated by other locals from the valley ,who said that Govt is ignoring us and due to that not just we our future generations are also suffering we are far behind from the basic things like proper Roads,transport, education and the most important Tourism prospective.