Gulmarg, Kashmir under Indian administration Disappointed, Javad Ahmad looks up at the pristine blue skies and the bleak red slopes of Gulmarg, a well-liked tourist spot in the Baramulla district of Indian-administered Kashmir.
He’s waiting for snow to fall outside his shuttered ski shop, since an exceptionally dry winter is damaging tourism and jeopardizing livelihoods in the Himalayan region.
Ahmad works as a ski trainer and is typically booked almost every day in December and February when millions of Indians visit the charming valley to ski on its snow-covered slopes and take in the views of the dales and mountains covered in snow.
However, he and hundreds of other trainers and mountain guides are unemployed this year.
All reserved ski dates through the beginning of February have been canceled. He claims that at higher elevations, the mountains had an average of 30 to 40 feet [9–12 meters] of snow. That now amounts to three feet of snow.
The well-known Gulmarg ski resort, which is near the Line of Control dividing Kashmir between Pakistan and India, appears to be deserted these days.
The 41-year-old claims, “I am sitting back without work in the month of January for the first time in my 20 years of skiing.”
“The lack of snow on these mountains hurts my feelings.”
