Migrant workers are fleeing Jammu and Kashmir and tourist arrivals have fallen to a trickle amid an escalating conflict between India and Pakistan, badly hurting businesses in the Himalayan region known for its scenic beauty and fruit harvests.
Hundreds of taxis stood idle at the main railway station of Jammu, the winter capital of the state, after Pakistan said it carried out air strikes in India and shot down two Indian jets on Wednesday. “My wife is really scared and has been calling me back,” Brajesh Prasad, who works at a white limestone factory near Jammu, said outside the emergency ticket counter at the railway station, as he sought to catch a train back to his village in Uttar Pradesh state. “I first came here two years ago, but decided last night it’s no longer safe to remain here. I know there would be no work back home for me, it’s not even the planting or harvest season to get some farm work,” Prasad said, who was leaving with a group of seven other men who worked together in Jammu and Kashmir.
At the adjoining taxi stand, taxi drivers’ union leader Ravinder Singh said March to September is usually the busiest season but this year prospects are looking grim. He said the taxi business is down by more than 80 percent compared with two years ago, as very few people are in town to visit the famous Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi, 62 km north of Jammu, which usually attracts millions of people every year. “The situation is very bad for us taxi operators,” Singh said. “I think the time has come to settle this India-Pakistan conflict for good.”
Published in Daily Times, February 28th 2019.
