Rethink, Retool, and Revive

Kashmir tourism stands at critical crossroads. Once heralded as “Paradise on Earth,” our fragile mountain ecosystem has been pushed to the brink by a tourism development model that prioritizes numbers over nature, volume over value, and growth over sustainability. In a region already reeling from climate vulnerability and environmental degradation, the unchecked expansion of tourism infrastructure risks undermining the very foundation of Kashmir’s natural and cultural allure.

In November 2024, the Peoples’ Environment Council (PEC) organized a Forum on Responsible Tourism in Kashmir: Challenges and Opportunities, raising serious concerns about the environmental and economic risks of the current “quantity- over-quality” tourism paradigm. We argued that the obsession with ever-increasing tourist numbers — without an honest accounting of ecological and infrastructural carrying capacity — threatens to turn Kashmir’s greatest asset into its biggest liability.

Fast forward to April 2025: the gruesome tragic attack on tourists in Baisaran, in Pahalgam claimed 26 precious lives and brought tourism to a halt.

The economic distress unleashed by the downturn — especially on households and communities dependent on tourism — is real and deeply felt. It is understandable that the government wants to revive the sector urgently. However, revival must not mean business as usual.

Recent developments as reported in the print media reveal a mixed picture. On the one hand, the Sustainable Promotion and Revamping of Emerging Alternative Destinations (SPREAD) initiative and the ambitious upgrade of Gulmarg tourism infrastructure — including ecosystem centric tourism planning; waste management, and AI-enabled tourist mobility and traffic management — hold potential. On the other hand, projects like the proposed ropeway for carrying about 14,000 passengers per day from Zabarwan park on the boulevard to Shankaracharya Temple reflects short-termism in Kashmir’s tourism sector planning. Important to note that Shankrcharya is a designated reserve forest and a game sanctuary. And the temple is a 30-minute ride on an already accessible road, which has long created traffic congestion along the Dal Lake boulevard; led to air pollution, and wildlife disturbance. Adding a high-capacity ropeway will only exacerbate these problems, worsening congestion, increasing vehicular pollution, and threatening sensitive biodiversity like brown bear.

Similarly, if the SPREAD program is implemented without a solid ecological and social sustainability filter, it could turn ecologically rich and culturally sensitive virgin areas into future hotspots of degradation.

What is needed is not just another tourism plan, but a strategic rethinking of the entire tourism development model in Kashmir.

This is where Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) becomes not just useful — but essential. Unlike the conventional project-level Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), which come late in the planning cycle and are often reduced to procedural compliance, SEA provides a big-picture, upstream policy and plan- level analysis. It allows us to:

- Evaluate cumulative impacts and trade-offs across regions and sectors;

- Assess carrying capacity scientifically;

- Design sustainability indicators that matter for Kashmir;

- Engage diverse stakeholders meaningfully — from tourism operators and environmentalists to local communities and social-cultural actors;

- And most importantly, align tourism with resilience (economic and climate), ecological conservation, and long-term economic value creation.

The plans for Gulmarg — as reported in 17th July 2025, Kashmir Observer article “Why Gulmarg’s New Tourism Model Could Change Kashmir Forever” — offer a hopeful departure. Yet even these should be stress-tested under a formal SEA process, and extended to all future tourism interventions, especially under the SPREAD program.

We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past — where ad hoc expansionism was mistaken for progress. The long-term sustainability of Kashmir’s tourism — and by extension, its economy and ecology — depends on strategic foresight, not short-term gains.

It is time to rethink, retool, and revive Kashmir’s tourism sector. Let Strategic Environmental Assessment be the compass and enabling planning tool.

 Javed Hussain Mir is Trustee PEC and Professor of Practice, IUST.