Ladakh: An Adventurous Heaven Yet To Be Explored!
Jammu, October 01: In our series J&K: A dream destination we had presented the case of Jammu as a tourist hub as extensively as we could, bringing home the point that some regions like Jammu and Ladakh which till now have been neglected need immediate attention and brought on to the map of national and international tourism map to tap the vast tourism potential of the regions.
Now it is the time to shift our focus exclusively on the cold desert Ladakh, which is one of the best tourist destinations considered by the domestic as well as foreign tourists?
Even though Ladakh is the main focus of foreigners the successive governments till date have not been able to cash in on the sheer beauty and uniqueness of this region partially due to lack of connectivity of the region for most of the time with the outside world and partially due to simple biased attitude of the powers that be.
Like Jammu, Ladakh has also faced gross neglect at the hands of the authorities mostly Kashmir dominated political class who milked the central government pleading the cause of the Ladakh as their province but when it came to spending the grants they developed cold feet.
However it was the will and resilience of the Ladakhi people that they managed to get autonomous Hill Development Councils on their own to oversee the development of the area but unfortunately that too has not proved fruitful.
It is now in the hands of the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed and the central government as well as the Development Councils to take the case of the Ladakhis’ on priority and establish not only the world class institutions and other developmental activities but also promote it as a eco and adventure tourism destination which once projected at right forums would prove the ultimate destination for adventure and eco tourists world over.
Since the area is now being connected through vast network of all weather roads and also air services being enhanced it is the need of the hour that the government begins to promote the area on large scale so that by the time the major tunnels from Kashmir and Himachal connect the Ladakh region with the rest of the world as all weather roads the tourists map is abuzz with the activity.
Ladkakhis’ being the honest and sincere population need a leader that can transform their region into a modern hub of tourists’ destination rather than remaining content with development councils and boards.
With Narendra Modi being at the helm it is imperative that Ladakhis’ take it upon themselves to seek their right and get maximum in terms of grants, development and infrastructure besides some world class institutions so that they have not to remain dependent on others doles and mercy for their progress.
It is also worthwhile to mention that Ladakhis are nationalists to the core and can unite when required what they lack is a young leadership that can take over and transform the region into modernity.
Having said that it is also imperative to promote individual tourist destinations of Ladakh around the world so that people get to know that there is adventurous heaven yet to be explored in Ladakh.
Earth News will start a series on the tourism of Ladakh henceforth like that of Jammu region and try to contribute our bit for the betterment of Ladakh.