We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. Somerset Maugham

Until quite recently, it would be considered a ‘bravado’, if not plain recklessness, to undertake a journey to Kumrat in the remote northwest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It wasn’t that predators roamed the valley; the fact of the matter was that the inhabitants of the area guarded their privacy so unflinchingly that it worked as a bulwark against the entry of the outsiders.

This apparently cynical behaviour had a salutary effect as it saved the forest and the river and the mountains from the prying eyes of the people of the lowlands.

The few tourists who did make it to Kumrat in the olden times did so in the company of the natives acting as their purported hosts. The accounts of those rare visits revealed to the world the virgin beauty of Kumrat Valley and its surrounding mountaintops in such gloriously romantic details that few could resist the temptation. The doors to Kumrat were thus forced open to an onslaught of domestic tourists from far and wide.

Some VVIP movement in the valley in the recent days and the news reports of the place being turned into a national park and a tourist spot, of exaggerated proportions, seem to have further exacerbated the flow of tourists bent on having their next gastronomical feasts on the bank of the crystalline river in Kumrat.

For so many of these not too sanguine reasons, the road to Kumrat these days could thus be seen bustling with a beeline of vehicles of all descriptions. Some of these vehicles could be seen bedecked with profusely garlanded goats and sheeps, only to be slaughtered at the altar of tourism and consumed hurriedly as soon as the name Kumrat appeared on a milestone alongside the road.

This is such a contrast with the earlier days when the few tourists who visited the valley would be content to share a meal of maize bread and yogurt offered by their hosts as local delicacies to their guests. Potatoes grown in Kumrat were of such unique taste that people in places like Peshawar would wait all year round for the same to arrive in the markets for sale in small quantities. Such organic delicacies have all disappeared as enterprising dealers from the down country, mostly from Punjab, have helped the local farmers replace their fertilisers and seeds with the promises of bumper crops.

There were then no hotels, except for a two-room inspection hut of the Forest Department, and visitors had to pitch tents for their short stays. The local community now seem to have compromised its long-held privacy as too many wood-shacks offering bedding and food have appeared in the middle of the pristine forest.

There are important people in positions of authority in Pakistan who seriously believe that if the country’s empty coffers had to be filled then tourism could be the source. Such people need our empathy for they are those who let themselves get carried away with simplistic solutions. It is this kind of self-defeating thinking on the part of these authorities that they have now come up with a plan to instal cable-cars in Kumrat.

A feasibility report has been ordered to be prepared for the installation of a 14km long cable-cars system, not witnessed by the world thus far (pun intended), so as to run between Kumrat in the Upper Dir district and Madaklasht area of Lower Chitral. A power-point presentation of the project containing its salient features was also made to the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Peshawar. The project is likely to cost 32 billion rupees.

Here, some attention needs to be paid to the rhetoric accompanying the initiation of the proposed project. It is touted to be the world’s longest cable-cars system scaling heights not seen anywhere else in the world. This indeed is in keeping with the megalomaniac mindset we have seen at work in the province for the last some years. The roots of this illness have to be found in the billion trees plantation project.

Now, since Kumrat is at a fairly long distance from the district headquarters of Upper Dir, a hotel of a good standard will have to be built to provide lodging to the travellers. Presently, as already said, no such facility exists in the area. In fact, such a facility is not available even in the headquarters of the district. Would it be one odd hotel or many of them, and how would the local people adjust to such a novelty in their bucolic habitats?

The project is likely to cost Kumrat its wilderness, which being its most prized asset and temptation had attracted us to its climes in the first place.

The authorities would do well to instal several cable-cars systems in the province. One suitable location for such a project could be Naran to Lake Saiful Malook where we already have a wide network of hotels. A second point could be a cable-cars system over the Lowari Top from Upper Dir to Ziarat at Chitral.

Some little prudence and imagination could save us from disasters that seem to be steering us in the face.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2020