IT is only true grit that has kept people of Kargil district going following the destruction caused in the ten-week-long Indo-Pak conflict in Dras-Kargil-Batalik sectors last year. The government is making an effort to bring the area on the international tourism map. In this connection, the Kargil festival was inaugurated in Dras by the Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah last month.

As more and more tourists want to visit this region since the war, the government is tapping the tourism industry for the "uplift of the poor". The week-long Kargil festival was inaugurated at Polo Ground in Goshan, Dras, the coldest inhabited place in the world after Siberia. It recorded - 60 degrees celsius in January, 1995. "People want to come to see the Tololing and Tiger hills", said Chief Minister while addressing the gathering at the Polo Ground. "It will also help improve the lot of the poor here and provide succour to them", he added.

"Only courage has kept us going" said Mohammad Ali of Dras, who had come to attend the inaugural function of the festival. Yeh chamak dhamak dou maheenay hee rahti hai, uskay baad kuchh bhi nahin hota hai he adds. "All that we had was gone in last year’s war", claims Imran Ali. Mohammad Akbar, one of the villagers of Goshan, lost all his 15 head of cattle. The cereal crop was damaged as it could not be tended to for three months, after the seeds were sown early in May. "When the trouble started we had to leave and there was nobody to look after the crop and the cattle", he said.

In spite of facing numerous such difficulties, people in the Kargil area are optimistic about tourism getting a boost in the region. "Foreign tourists were coming in large numbers every year, but this year more domestic tourists have been coming", Saklain Mushtaq of Caravan Sarai in Kargil said, adding that domestic tourists were coming "due to Kargil which hit the international headlines". He got nearly two dozen groups. Last month each group comprised over a dozen members. Foreigners from Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria were among those visiting the region. Kargil, Saklain says, is the "base camp for tourists of the region." Tourists, mostly foreign trekkers, go to Zanskar and Leh, he adds.

The hazardous winter keeps the population of Kargil district cut off from the rest of the world for six months. It is only in summer when the road opens to the region that supplies are sent from the Kashmir valley. In winter, people, especially the poor, have to depend on their own supplies. They have access to Leh which is 200 km away by road and is linked by air to the rest of the world. Daily flights to Delhi and weekly flights to Srinagar and Jammu are also operational.

High and barren mountains of the region hold attraction for the foreign and domestic tourists. For many domestic tourists the area has a special significance as many of their kith and kin laid down their lives during the Kargil war. Perhaps that is why many domestic tourists want to see Tololing and Tiger hills.

A MEMORIAL FOR THE MARTYRS

A WAR memorial in memory of the soldiers who laid down their lives in the Kargil conflict has been erected in Bhimbat, 7 km from Dras. Vijay Divas was observed here on July 26 to mark the sacrifices made by the Army in Operation Vijay.

The work on the memorial had started early last month. Vijay Divas was held to "commemorate the first anniversary of India’s victory over Pakistani intruders", a defence spokesman said.

Bhimbat was one of the villages that suffered heavy destruction due to Pak shelling last year. The locals had to leave the area during the war. They came back after more than three months only to find their houses had been damaged and the cattle and crops had perished. The villagers allege that the Army had occupied over 100 kanals of the villagers but no compensation was given in lieu of the land occupied. The residents were earlier given Rs 20,000 each for the construction of underground bunkers in the region. "Now, however, we are given only Rs 14,000 for the construction of such bunkers, while their cost has gone up to at least Rs 25,000", a resident of Bhimbat village said.

Another grievance of these villagers is that a number of educated youth have not been offered jobs in spite of repeated assurances by senior state government functionaries. "More than 100 educated young men and women are unemployed in the village", said Ashraf Ali, who has done his graduation from the Bemina college in Srinagar.The villagers have also demanded trained staff for the three schools in the area.

People of this year long for the fulfilment of the promises made to them. Relief and development work, supply of drinking water and electricity, employment to educated youth and transport services are the only demands put forth by the poor villagers.

Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah during his visit to Dras on June 17 last to inaugurate the week-long Kargil festival, promised to upgrade the hospital and redress the grievances of the people, who have courageously borne border skirmishes for years. The area remains cut off from the rest of the world as the Zoji La Pass, the dividing line between the Kashmir division and the Ladakh division, remains blocked for at least six months in winter every yearw — EF