by Syed Shadab Ali Gillani
SRINAGAR: With winds picking the speed on Monday afternoon, people started running towards their homes. Ghulam Qadir Gassi was one of them. As destiny had it, he along with his family had a providential escape as the gutsy winds devastated their home, their houseboat.
Gassi and his family lived in a houseboat in Jhelum River not far away from Residency Road, Srinagar’s most fashionable market.
“Yesterday, at about 4 pm, when the strong winds blew and it started raining, our houseboat was thrown towards a block, resulting in damage,” Gassi said. “When the houseboat got flooded, we tried to save ourselves, and afterwards the CRPF and army came to our rescue.”
The family spent most of the Tuesday on the banks looking at the rubble that their age old shelter was reduced to. People come an sympathise with the man. “It was just not a houseboat but our shelter,” he said, mourning the loss of inheritance. “The destruction cost us approximately Rs 25 lakhs and we are left with nothing.”
The houseboat was already damaged, and it will cost a significant amount of money to repair and restore it. “We have appealed to the authorities several times to shift our family to some other place,” Qadir lamented.
“It was extremely terrible; we lost everything last night,” said Gassi’s aged mother. “We just want the government to take action and relocate us to some other location where we can live peacefully. We request the LG once again to please consider our situation and help us get out of this.”
Kashmir, a crowded tourist space, has houseboats as one of the many attractions. Every visitor hopes to stay a few days in one of the valley’s top attractions—the floating homes.
However, the houseboat owners blame the government for neglecting them as they quietly perish. Out of the 3500 houseboats, only 800 remain today. Prior to 1985, Kashmir was address to 1100 houseboats.
“We are not allowed to repair, renovate, or reconstruct the houseboats,”. Manzoor Pakhtoon, the Chairman of the Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association, stated. “Any work on houseboats requires going to court.”
Nearly 150 houseboat owners want to discontinue this business due to the present situation of the houseboat sector. According to Pakhtoon, the current state of affairs is disastrous for Kashmir’s houseboat industry. Renovation is necessary with time, but when one is not allowed to do so, people associated with the industry become anxious and stressed.
“Houseboats are an important part of our long-standing culture and tradition in Kashmir. They also play a vital role in the tourism industry, but the present condition of the houseboats fails to attract many tourists, which is a grave situation,” Pakhtoon stated.
In May 2021, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha approved the policy and guidelines for the sustainable operation of houseboats.
Referring to the policy, Pakhtoon said that we are still waiting for it to be implemented on the ground. “We have to seek permission from the court for any renovation or reconstruction work, and it is a lengthy process. For instance, the houseboats from Nigeen lake, which were gutted in a fire last year, are yet to be reconstructed.”
