CHITRAL: Soon after the conclusion of winter festival Chitramas, Kalash valleys of Bumburate, Rumbur and Birir have started wearing a deserted look where hotels have been closed down for the season during which no tourist visits the area.

Kalash valleys are said to be in the grip of intense cold, which has forced locals to confine themselves inside their houses during the winter season that extends to four or five months.

Himayat Shah Kalash, a shopkeeper in Batrik village of Bumburate valley, told this scribe that the conclusion of winter festival meant a long slumber in Kalash valleys where majority of youth left for the down country and tourists found no attraction there during that season.

He said that almost 100 per cent hotels were closed down soon after the conclusion of the festival. He said that the hotels would reopen in April. He added that tourism activities came to a grinding halt in Kalash valleys.

He said that the situation of tranquility and wilderness plunged to further lows when the valleys received snow after which a hibernation-like condition came to persist during which Kalash people did not come out of their homes.

Himayat Shah said that people started storing all the food items well before the advent of winter season which they used lavishly during that period and did not require going out in search of any commodity. He said that the valley had oak wood in abundance which people stored and used for cooking and heating.

He said that winter tourism was yet to be promoted in Kalash valleys. It was being expected in the wake of completion of Lowari tunnel, which provided all-weather access to Chitral but it was yet to be explored, he added.

The shopkeeper said that dilapidated roads to the valleys were also great hurdle to promotion of winter tourism. He said that the roads remained closed to vehicular traffic after snowfall. “The roads are inundated by boulders and avalanches,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2025