With an aim to develop sports at grassrootslevel the Union Ministry for Youth Affairs and Sports has launched a schemeunder the name and style “Khelo India” few years back. The competitions invarious games and sports are now conducted regularly in different states underthis banner. The scheme has helped to hunt the hidden talent as it givesopportunity to hitherto unknown athletes to excel in their liked sports. It hasbenefitted thousands of sportsmen/women of the country.
With the huge success of Khelo India theUnion Sports Ministry initiated Khelo India University Sports this year underthe able guidance of Shri Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State for YouthAffairs and Sports. Shri Rijiju is perhaps the first Sports Minister whobrought organised sports to every street of the country. It is undoubtedly hischerished desire to give chance to Indian youth to play sports at highestlevel. Appreciably he himself monitors the Khelo India program and moves fromstate to state to implement the scheme in a better way. His efforts to thisdirection are highly laudable.
Keeping in view the importance of wintergames in Himalayan states Mr. Rijiju was kind enough to include winter games inhis Khelo India program this winter. The first edition of winter games was heldat Gulmarg in the first week of March. In fact proposal for holding the KheloIndia in winter games was conceived by the Winter Games Association of J&Kand was submitted to the Union Ministry through J&K Sports Council.Initially a meeting convened by Secretary to Govt of India Youth Affairs andSports, was among others attended by Secretary Youth Services and Sports,J&K Govt, Secretary J&K Sports Council, President Winter GamesAssociation of J&K and other officers of the Union Ministry. Since theJ&K delegates could not convince the Union Secretary the proposal was dropped. Fortunately Mr.Rijiju, on his visit to Jammu, had declared that winter games will be conductedat Gulmarg in winter and his statement later helped to reconsider our proposal.This writer, as General Secretary of Winter Games Association of J&K, was askedto submit the revised Detailed Project Report for reconsideration of the Govtof India. With the efforts of Secretary J&K Sports Council, Dr. NaseemJaviad Chowdhary and liberal attitude of Sport,s Minister the proposal wasfinally approved and grants for this purpose were tripled than the projected.In this way the Khelo India Winter Games came into being.
Since the time for holding this biggestever snow sports event was left short everybody connected to winter sports andthe officials of Sports Council were asked to gear up and accelerate theirefforts to make this maiden extravaganza event a grand success. Severalmeetings were held by Sports Council and Winter Games Association in Srinagarand Gulmarg. Initially there was lot of confusion, tension and miscommunicationamong the officials of Association and Sports Council though differentCommittees and sub-committees were constituted. However Dr Naseem managed totackle all the situations. He knew how to extract best things from theconcerned officials. Being noble and energetic everybody cooperated with him.His hard work finally proved fruitful. The WGAJK constituted Technical Committee with Maj Gen. Tarun Kumar Aichof High altitude Warfare School as its Chairman.
Nearly 950 athletes from all over thecountry took part. Not only winter sports but some other summer sports werealso included in the event. Besides regular snow sports, theSki-Mountaineering, Snow Shoeing, Ice Skating, Ice stock, Rugby and Baseballevents were conducted in this mega event. The Winter Games Association ofJ&K fielded the largest contingent of nearly 450 athletes. In differentwinter games, competitions were held in Alpine Skiing, Nordic Skiing,Snowboarding, Skidoo race, Skibob race, Snow Derby and Sledging. The competitionswere conducted among all age groups and categories. There were as many as 24events in Snow sports only. The J&K bagged a rich haul of 12 Gold, 14Silver and 13 bronze medals and stood at top ranking. The Overall teamChampionship trophy for Senior men was lifted by HAWS.
To the luck of athletes the games survivedthe dreaded coronavirus. After holding the Inaugural ceremony there wasapprehension that the event may be cancelled next day. All the participants andorganisers were disappointed. Due to heavy snowfall in the upper reaches thesnow sports were put to halt for half a day on 8th March, while the Ice Stockevents could be held in the morning in the safe Ice Skating Rink. In theafternoon the weather improved and the competitions in children events wereheld at Gulmarg bowl smoothly. These events encouraged the organisers and from9th the major competing events were held at Kongdori.
On 6th March the Winter Games Associationof J&K conducted a breathtaking Night Ski demonstration in honour of theSports Minister, Director General Sports Authority of India and otherdignitaries. Entire Highlands and 185 Ski Slopes were decorated by woodentorches (Mashalis) and nearly 100 skiers took part in this scintillatingdemonstration. The demonstration fascinated all the invited guests who had nowords to express their joy and appreciation for the beauty of Gulmarg. Infalling snow the guests preferred to watch the demonstration in open outsidethe hotel. Equally on 7th March a grand opening ceremony was conducted. Theorder of events contained March Past by athletes; flag unfurling, releasing ofSouvenir, pledge taking, presentation of mementos, addresses and declaring theKhelo India open by the Chief Guest. The cultural program added color to theinaugural ceremony. A demonstration of skiing by Children on Baby slope wasalso organized by Winter Games Association of J&K on the occasion amongstlarge gathering of media persons. The Souvenir edited by this writer containedmessages from high dignitaries, some informative articles and achievements ofWinter Games Association.
In his address the Minister, Shri Rijijudeclared that a School of Excellence for Winter Sports will be set up at Gulmarg for training Indianathletes soon. Sports Council has been advised to submit the DPR for thispurpose. Meanwhile, there is need to transfer the dilapidated GDA dormitory forthe proposed School. There is also need to homologate slopes at Kongdori,procure enough equipment, engage certified and experienced coaches and to haveMOU with foreign Ski Schools particularly from Australia and Europe. The SportsCouncil need to engage experts to prepare the DPR for this purpose
From Tourism point of view this mega eventhelped the Union Territory to highlight the potential of winter tourism inKashmir as well. The event received wide coverage in print and electronic mediawhich no other winter festival could do earlier. The publicity given by Tourism Deptt at localand national level is laudable.
The event became so dearer to many thatsome of the Govt Departments claimed that the event is being organized by themand tried to sideline the main organers, the Sports Council and Winter GamesAssociation. The J&K Cable Car Corporation, J&K Youth Services and sportsDeptt, Tourism Deptt, JIM & WS, and HAWS virtually contributed their bit tomake the event a grand success and deserve all applauds from winter sportsenthusiasts.
Notably in winter sports J&K has manyfirsts at its credit. The first National Ski Championship was held here in1986, first National Winter Games was held in 1998 and now it was time forfirst Khelo India Winter Games. Kashmir has in fact played a vital role inpromoting winter sports in the country but unfortunatelywe could not get our slopes certified by International Ski Federation while as,lesser known Auli in Uttrakhand has got its slopes certified and they are noweligible to host any international level championships.
Author is Director Adventure Call Tour andtravels and General secretary WGAJK & ATOAK