When Mother Nature was handing out its
Bounty, the area that is Himachal Pradesh today was standing at the top of the
queue to get Nature’s goodies.
What did it get? Rivers, lakes, meadows, high
altitude deserts and mountains, mountains and more mountains! The most
beautiful on the Planet and being in the mighty Himalaya they are amongst the
highest peaks on the Earth.
Reo Pargil at 6,816 meters above sea level,
Leo Pargil at 6,791 meters, Gyagar at 6,797 meters and Shilla at 6,312 meters
are all in Himachal. These four peaks are nudging an altitude of 7,000 meters
above sea level. If you count peaks above 6,000 meters above sea level the
count will exceed a dozen peaks or more. They are all perpetually snow covered.
Yet not a millimetre of world class ski
slopes. That is the development that Himachal Tourism has made in half a
century of its existence and non-functioning.
They have failed, miserably, to harness the
exquisite beauty and inexhaustible natural resources of this magnificent State.
The Government was busy garnering votes not attracting or promoting tourism. To
harness and harvest Nature’s bounty is a simple matter and is free.
No one saw it. No one took advantage of it.
So the idea of an Indoor Ski-Park has to be
one of the most hare-brain ideas since the invention of the square wheel!
Carrying coals to Newcastle describes
foolishness to the enth degree, this beats it hands down! Imagine an Indoor
Ski- Park at about 3,000 meters above sea level, nestling in the lap of lofty
snow clad peaks, surrounded by stately deodars.
Fast rewind to the winter of 1951-52. It had
started to snow in the Shimla Hills. My favourite winter-time sport,
ice-skating, had been stalled.
A very close friend of my father, Panchi Sen
had been posted as the head of The Grindlays Bank in Shimla. The two had been
together at the Baliol College, Oxford. Both were keen sportsmen. My Father had
played tennis and hockey for Baliol.
Panchi had just come back from Europe after a
skiing holiday. He invited my Father to come skiing. My Father was the only one
in the family who knew what skiing was!
When I found out we will have to go to Kufri,
where the ski-slopes were, I was thrilled. There was only one way to get to
Kufri, our Jeep! It meant I would get to drive the Jeep in 4- wheel drive
through snow!
The ski slopes were the Potato Research
Institute fields. Fields in Himachal are on narrow steps on the mountain side.
A track had been evened out and wooden boards had been placed to make a slope.
The overnight snow had covered the boards and that was the first ski-run in
Kufri!
It was of little interest to me. My job was
to wait at the bottom of the ski-run in the Jeep and ferry the skiers back to
the top. There was no ski-lift. There were only three skiers. Panchi, his wife
Pam and my Father.
There weren’t too many skiers because there
weren’t too many skis! You had to bring your own equipment.
It was not a very successful venture. The
Potato Research Institute weren’t happy about their fields being dug up. There
was no infrastructure. It was just fun and games for a select few.
Then a strange thing happened. Due to the
concrete buildings that came up, the temperature in Kufri went up! As the snow-
flakes came down, they melted about 20-30 meters above the slopes and came down
in a soggy mess. No slope, no skiing! This effect is called a micro climate. No
more skiing in Kufri!
It didn’t bother me one bit. My joy was
ice-skating.
The Blessington Tennis Courts, below the
Rivoli Cinema would be converted into Asia’s largest open air ice-skating rink.
Please note, the operative word is, ‘Open Air’!
For the next two decades I was on the move,
including a 2 year posting in Geneva, Switzerland. It is not possible to live
in Switzerland and not absorb, through the simple process of osmosis, the finer
points of skiing. The Swiss, as is their national character to strive for
perfection have made skiing into a fine art. Davos, Klosters, Zermatt, St.
Morits are the best known Swiss Ski Resorts in the world. Just across the
border is Chamonix in France. All these resorts have hosted International
winter sports sometime or the other. Nothing like that has happened in
Himachal.
I had occasion to visit all these places in Switzerland
in the summer and winter. Every town, actually they are still villages, it is a
picture post-card in beauty, cleanliness and discipline. Words that Indians are
allergic to!
After a couple of decades of globe-trotting I
came back to India. As soon as I got news of a heavy snow fall in Narkanda, I
drove up.
Himachal’s snow activities were centred in
Narkanda.
At dinner time, The Director Tourism held a
briefing session. He welcomed everybody and said, “Sorry people, the lift has
gone for repairs, you’ll have to walk to the top!”
That wasn’t a Herculean task. The ski-run was
a couple of hundred meters long. Some strategically planted deodars provided
the chicanes. By no stretch of the imagination could this be called a
ski-slope.
Some years later, Manali came into
prominence. Nothing to do with winter sports. A ski-slope had come up at
Solang. Again, I rushed up to see this much needed sports activity in Himachal.
There were a few skiers, but no facilities to
promote skiing. Actually, skiing was dangerous
on the ski-slopes. The local entrepreneurs had bought snow scooters. They were
ferrying tourists for joy rides on the ski-slopes. Can you imagine a motorized
vehicle on a ski-slope!
I can’t help but compare Himachal with
Switzerland. Himachal is 55,673 square kilometres. Switzerland is 41,285 square
kilometres. It is one of the smallest countries in Europe and landlocked. Yet
Switzerland over seven thousand kilometres of ski-slopes and these are serviced
by 1,813 lifts!
Each Swiss Resort has a five star rating with
a Michelin awarded Chef in the kitchen. Himachal will have a chai-wala, sitting
under a torn blue plastic sheet serving luke warm syrupy tea in a dented steel
glass with a choice of bread-pakoras or instant noodles!
The total cost of this Indoor Ski-Park will
be Rs. 250 crore. It will have a palatial Mall, a five star hotel, a food
court, a shopping arcade. It will also have a parking facility for a 1,000
vehicles.
This is the description of an amusement park
not a ski resort.
After Shimla and Manali, Kufri will be in
line to be raped and ruined!
There are two other Bounties Himachal which has
been ignored but have the potential of been major tourist attractions and money
earners, without much investment.
River rafting. Himachal has two major rivers,
the Satluj and the Beas. No river rafting!
Because of the mountains there is unlimited
scope of hang gliding with near zero investment. All it needs is a launch site.
Again this has been ignored.
Both the sports discipline, if promoted
properly and wisely will bring in foreigners and have the potential to host
international events.
Informatively, there are two Indoor Ski Parks
in the world. Ski Egypt and Ski Dubai. Both are at sea level and in dessert
areas. The Kufri Ski Park in the lap of the Himalaya would be unique. And quite
unnecessary.
