‘All will disappear’: sun sets on Kashmir’s traditional houseboats as tourism, and Dal Lake, dry up

There have been houseboats on Dal Lake in Srinagar since the 1860s, with more modern, palatial vessels attracting a slew of high-paying tourists in happier times

But a combination of politics, environmental protection and the coronavirus pandemic have conspired to mean the famed floating hotels’ days may now be numbered

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Small boats are seen at sunset on Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, earlier this month. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:00pm, 19 Jun 2021Updated: 1:06pm, 19 Jun 2021

High in the foothills of the Himalayas, on a lake ringed by Mughal-era gardens, Imtiyaz Ahmad and two other Kashmiri men were hard at work earlier this month cleaning a sumptuous cedar-wood houseboat.

In happier times, Young Beauty Star was a popular floating hotel for tourists who flocked to Dal Lake, in Indian-administered Kashmir, but in recent years a combination of politics, environmental protection and the coronavirus pandemic have conspired to mean its days – and those of the lake’s other famed houseboats – may now be numbered.

There have been houseboats on the lake in Srinagar since at least the 1860s, though in the early days they would have looked quite different from the palatial vessels filled with chandeliers, carpets and intricately carved furniture that not so long ago could earn their owners as much as 30,000 rupees (US$410) a month from paying guests.

Imtiyaz Ahmad cleans his houseboat, the Young Beauty Star, in the hopes of soon having some paying customers. Photo: Bhat Burhan

Initially devised as a place for outsiders to live, as until two years ago they were forbidden from owning land in the region, the houseboats for years proved popular with foreign and domestic tourists alike. But after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in August 2019 stripped the former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special semi-autonomous status after some seven decades, tourism largely dried up amid the heavy military crackdown that followed. The pandemic, which has kept India’s borders closed to foreign tourists since March last year, only compounded matters.

Ahmad’s ancestors have been involved in the houseboat business on Dal Lake since the 19th century, he said, but over the past two years he has been forced to sell vegetables by the lakeside for “a few pennies” just to make ends meet and feed his family of five.

He is not alone. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries estimates the region has missed out on some US$5.3 billion in revenue since it was stripped of its special status, with about half a million jobs lost in the 12-month period that followed. A significant portion of the revenue that was lost would have otherwise gone to the houseboats’ owners.

No more boatbuilders

Though they are made from durable, rot-resistant deodar wood that comes from a species of cedar native to the western Himalayas, Dal Lake’s houseboats still need constant maintenance in order to remain afloat. But a near-decade ban on their renovation, or the construction of new ones, first implemented in 2009 to ease pollution and degradation of the lake has seen their number dwindle from some 1,500 to just 910 today.