Cricket, tourism: Once a warzone, J&K’s Gurez valley now ‘reverberates with sounds of peace, happiness’

Srinagar: After guns of  India and Pakistan fell silent at Line of Control (LoC), love for sports and development has emerged in the area.

Gurez valley situated adjacent to LoC which had remained under the shadow of guns for decades is now having different reasons to cheer. A snow-clad valley 174 km from Srinagar remains cut off from the rest of the world due to heavy snowfall and closure of the Razdan Pass for four to five months during winters in a year. Most of the families migrate out from Gurez during winters and who live there remain stranded for months that too mostly indoors as there remains nothing to do. 

Winter in this valley is harsh with temperatures dipping down to minus 20 degrees and accumulation of snow going up to 5-10 feet. During this season, the locals remain unemployed and confine themselves indoors. 

This year numerous events were organised by the Indian Army and local administration in Gurez to promote tourism in the valley. As a result, more than 15000 tourists visited the valley compared to a mere 343 tourists in the previous year.

After summer remained charming in this border area, Gurez, now the Indian army is trying to keep the spirit high during winters too. A snow cricket tournament was organised in Dawar, Gurez by the Indian Army recently in which more than 10 teams of the Gurez valley participated. The 12-day long tournament was played on a snow-covered field in minus 10 degrees temperature. 

The Gurez cricket videos are everywhere and trending on social media nowadays. Snow Cricket in Gurez also grabbed the attention of the Australian batting sensation Marnus Labuschagne who tweeted, " How Good Is this". 

How good is this https://t.co/J2mqrWzqHC

— Marnus Labuschagne (@marnus3cricket) January 19, 2022

The event witnessed a huge crowd of supporters cheering their favourite teams and appealing to the BCCI and JK Tourism to conduct more such events and promote winter tourism in Gurez. In five feet of snow and chilling cold, the border valley of Gurez is making a lot of noise over cricket and other sports replacing the sounds of gunfire that caused death and despair to its residents for decades. People are now demanding authorities' attention towards Gurez. 

A local said Ajaz Ahmad Dar said, "Thank Allah, Gurez is reverberating with sounds of peace and happiness. Ceasefire has benefited a lot the people here, we use to face a lot of problems when firing used to happen but since the ceasefire happened we have a lot of benefits. Tourism saw a boost last season when around 15000 tourists came to Gurez. Many sporting events are happening here like skiing and cricket. People are happy and they want sports and tourism to see a boost." 

The Army is also conducting Jashan-e-Gurez Winter carnival in Gurez to promote the potential of winter tourism in Gurez. The locals have lauded these initiatives and believe that they would provide immense opportunities to the youth of Gurez and would keep them away from the evils of drugs and radicalisation.

For the LoC to love of sports in Gurez is having different stories to tell these days. Gurez is making it from being a warzone to a safe destination with huge tourism potential.

The tension between the facing armies has considerably eased in Gurez, LoC areas and international border after the two DGMOs called for a ceasefire in the year 2020. 

The tourism department is now planning to open border tourism and Gurez is the prime location among the list prepared by the Kashmir tourism department.