Srinagar, Apr 4: With the number of houseboats in the famous Dal, Nigeen lakes and other waterbodies like Jhelum dwindling during past two decades, the cry for conservation of the wooden wonder is growing shriller with their owners impressing upon the government to treat the prized boats as heritage and project it as face of Kashmir.
 Till 80s’, houseboats were considered to be an imperative part of Kashmir’s rich heritage and were a favourite haunt for British, Nawabs and other VIPs.
 However, due to lack of conservation policies by the successive regimes, the number of houseboats has dwindled from 3000 to 930 in few decades.
 Though the government last year inaugurated a dockyard for renovation and repairs of the houseboats, the owners feel more needs to be done to preserve the floating marvel.
 “Houseboats have been attracting tourists from round the globe for past over a century. Even during the turmoil, houseboats have been acting ambassadors of Kashmir and main attraction of tourists. But little was done than required and so lost dozens of houseboats during the past over a decade,” said President Houseboat Owners Association, Manzoor Ahmed Wangnoo.
 He said though the government extended “package facilities” to the houseboats owners under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan, it was turned into loan but could not be repaid in time due turmoil in the Valley.
 “Due to political situation, the tourist flow to the Valley was restricted and livelihood of the houseboats owners was badly hit. We have been urging the Government to get the loan waived off and hope that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will plead our case,” he said.
 Wangnoo said the houseboat owners are committed to preserve the Dal lake. “We support the proposal of LAWDA to conserve the lake, however, we want proper rehabilitation of the affected owners.
 “We also want to maintain that it is difficult for us to share the cost of floating septic tanks for houseboats and urge the Government to install them on its own taking our miserable financial condition into consideration,” he said adding the deliberations were going on with LAWDA.
 “The negotiations have been positive,” he added that most of the houseboats would be connected with the STPs while others would depend on the floating septic tanks.
 Wangnoo minced no words in stating that houseboats were being targeted for Dal’s pollution.
 “Scientific studies have established that the  Dal has been affected by pollution from its catchments apart from that spewed by interiors of the Dal... It is ironical that houseboats are blamed for the lake’s condition,” he pleaded.
 Wangnoo, who also heads the Nigeen Lake Conservation Organization, demanded timely rehabilitation and compensation for the deregistered houseboats owners of Jhelum and Chuntkul who have been pressing for their demands since they were deregistered.
 He however praised the LAWDA for its efforts to revive the Dal. “Due to continuous cleaning drives by LAWDA, Shikaras are able to move smoothly around the lake unlike previous years. We’ll like put in record our appreciation for Tourism Department for promoting Kashmir in various national and international tourism fairs,” he said.
”However, it’ll be good if exclusive road-shows on houseboats are organized in other states and international markets especially Middle East,” he added.
 Wangnoo said it was opportune time for the government to take measures for attracting tourists from Middle East and south East Asia given the tremendous market potential.
 “We are hopeful that with the support of government, we can save the houseboats the backbone of tourism industry from extinction,” Wangnoo said.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Apr 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Apr 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 5 Apr 2011 00:00:00 IST