Perched at an altitude of 8,500 feet above the sea level, nippy weather has already set in at one of India’s winter wonderlands, the tourist hotspot Gulmarg. The green table-top meadow located in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district is spread over three square kilometres, with the imposing peaks and slopes of the Pir Panjal ranges of Himalayas on the West and the vast expanse of Srinagar and its surrounding mountain peaks on the East.
In the meadow’s first ever inn, the double-storeyed Nedous Hotel, the lupines and hollyhocks have started to wither away. The 137-year-old chalet, with a facade of well-seasoned deodar bark has been sealed with a white tape and an official stamp since August 2 this year.
The hotel has become the first lease structure to be taken over by the Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) from the first family of hoteliers, the Nedous. Officials at the GDA say the Nedous lease expired in 1985 and the family failed to renew it. In 2015, the J&K High Court dismissed the plea for renewal. This year, the GDA declared the Nedous family as “an unauthorized occupant under the J&K Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1988”. But many local hoteliers rue the decision and fear for their future too. There is no privately owned land in Gulmarg; all of it is government-owned.
The winter-sports destination that is set to witness the first ever auction of existing hotels after J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha introduced the J&K Land Grant Rules in 2022, which replaced the J&K Land Grants Rules, 1960. It has left local hoteliers livid. “Kashmir has no manufacturing industry. The hotel industry created a strong upper-middle class here,” says Amjad Khan (name changed). He is one of 10 hoteliers who have challenged the rules before the J&K High Court for being “discriminatory”.
“It aches my heart to see the Nedous Hotel sealed. There were no hotels in Gulmarg other than Nedous till the 1970s. I worked in the bar of the Hotel Highlands Park, then part of Hotel Nedous. The tourist sector of Kashmir owes everything to the Nedous,” says Abdul Ahad Bakshi, who now owns Bakshi Restaurant, popular in Gulmarg.
As the Gulmarg lease case enters the final stage and is listed for hearing on October 27, the future of 52 structures, including 32 hotels and 20 huts, spread over 38 acres will be determined afresh. Out of 2,300 beds in Gulmarg, the lease property owns 614 rooms or 1,200 beds. Around 2000 staff members and service providers are likely to be affected by the auctioning as the government has no proposal to retain them. “If the elected government fails to intervene and ensure the leases are not cancelled on this scale, the staff is doomed,” says Bakshi.
Hotels in Gulmarg, many of which may be auctioned.
| Photo Credit:
Imran Nissar
The founding of tourism in Gulmarg
In his late 70s, Bakshi is witness to the transformation of Gulmarg. He has vivid memories of serving former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and his family. “Mrs. Gandhi was a frequent traveller to Gulmarg and visited the last time in 1983 with her family, including Rahul and Priyanka. They would always stay in the Nedous. I had the privilege of feeding the young Gandhis during their stay. Mrs. Gandhi was fond of visiting local shrines and always followed local customs when she entered,” says Bakshi.
He says it was in the 1908s that Gulmarg opened up to new hoteliers. “The then government wanted the locals to invest in Gulmarg and became part of the tourism story of Kashmir. Gulmarg today feeds people from three nearby areas by employing young and old as sledge drivers, skiers, and guides from Baramulla, Sangrama, and Tangmarg,” says Baskshi.
In 1888 by Michael Adam Nedou, a European, chanced upon Gulmarg’s meadows. On the instructions of the then Dogra rulers, Nedou set up the first ever hotel to cater Europeans and royalties. This was the second property of Nedou after he built Nedous Hotel in Lahore in the 1870s.
“We were pioneers of tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. The tourism industry boomed and emerged on the global scene because of the Nedous. It took some effort to ensure the structure retains the heritage look and feel as handed down to us by our great great grandfather,” says Aqil Nedou, who worked as the director of operations and sales in the hotel.
“Why was our hotel targeted first?” says Nedou, who is related to the Abdullah family, which leads the ruling National Conference (NC). The senior-most Neudo’s eldest son Harry Nedou married Mir Jaan, a woman of Rajput Gujjar descent from Gulmarg. Their daughter, Akbar Jahan, later married NC founder Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.
Tourists started travelling to Gulmarg on horseback then. The St. Mary’s Church was built in 1902 and as more local tourists started trickling in, the Mohinishwar Shivalaya Shiv Mandir came in 1915 during the rein of Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh. All the three structures — Nedous Hotel, the church, and the temple — are perched atop three highlands within the bowl-shaped meadow, surrounded by pine and deodar tree-lines.
Abdul Rehman Mir, in his late 70s from Baramulla’s Khawar area, joined the hotel in 1973 as a room service boy. “I have five daughters and an ailing wife. They all depended on my salary, which was secure till the police came and sealed the hotel. I have no memories other than the corridors of the hotel. I am unemployable now,” says Mir.
Sheikh Amin, 48, a resident of Baramulla’s Sultanpora, had worked as the manager of the hotel. His daily routine of travelling from his humble village to this high-end hotel has also come to an end after 17 years. “The eviction came as a bolt from the blue. We had a staff strength of 55. All were rendered jobless in one stroke, without a notice,” says Amin. The visitors’ diary maintained by the hotel is still full of praise for Amin and his staff. “I have served many high-profile guests at the hotel but have the most vivid memories about the stays of (actor) Shabana Azmi,” says Amin.
Nedous Hotel in Gulmarg, 55 km from Srinagar, Kashmir, has been shut down due to new rules around properties on government land kicking in. IMRAN NISSAR
| Photo Credit:
Imran Nissar
Rules and a pushback
According to official figures of the Gulmarg Development Authority, lease holders pay ₹6 per kannal (0.125 acre) of land in Gulmarg; this has not been revised for decades. Gulmarg only generates a revenue of ₹4 crore from these lease properties. Just the government-run Gulmarg Gondola, a ropeway that runs 3.2 kilometres for tourists to get elevated views of the mountains, earned over ₹100 crore in 2023-24, as per reports.
The new rules, if upheld, will end all the current leases. Unlike the previous lease period of 99 years, the new lease period will be reduced to 40 years. These rules also deem a person or an entity who has defaulted under the 1960 Act ineligible to participate in the auction. This makes almost all current lessees ineligible to compete.
According to the officials in the tourism department, the use of land once auctioned will be diversified to education, healthcare, agriculture, tourism, skill development, and development of traditional art, craft, culture and languages. The new provisions allow land in Gulmarg to be set aside for self-employment or for housing of ex-servicemen, war widows, and the families of people who have died in military service.
Gulmarg is the main destination of Kashmir’s tourism industry. According to the tourism department’s figures, the meadow attracted 15.4 lakh tourists in 2022, 16.25 lakh in 2023, and 13.05 lakh in 2024. The figures suggest that over 75% of tourists who travel to Kashmir visit Gulmarg, which is the only ski destination of the Valley that matches the snow quality of the Alps in Switzerland.
For the first time, those who do not have domicile status can apply for lease of land, opening Gulmarg to big tourism players. The locals see the move as a death knell for investors from Kashmir. Most local hotel owners argued the struggle in creating a brand, the investment and the hardships are being ignored while throwing open Gulmarg to outsiders.
The grandfather of Niyaz Ahmad (name changed), in his 40s, purchased a piece of land under auction in 1978 in Gulmarg for hotel construction. “Our family took a loan from J&K Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited (SICOP) to invest in Gulmarg and construct a 32-room hotel. We started repaying the loan in the 1980s and the militancy started in the 1990s. Kashmir faced turmoil and we saw losses till 2010 and now when tourism is picking up, our hotels are being snatched from us,” he says.
He says building trust in tourists was hard, but now that he has developed those relationships with guests from Russia, Austria, New Zealand, and Tibet during the ski season, he is being asked to relinquish the property he runs. “What will happen to 45 staff members? No Kashmiri can compete in the auction ever,” he adds.
There were six hotels that came up for auction in the 2000s, as Kashmir’s militancy situation showed signs of improvement. These too will be auctioned
Coming to terms with loss
Hotels in Gulmarg are categorised as ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’. Most livelihoods are attached to the B and C categories, which are the middle and lower rung hoteliers. Gulmarg has 23 B-grade lease hotels and 13 C-grade hotels. “I lost my husband a few years ago. My two children inherited this hotel from their father. They study abroad now. If the hotel is taken over by the government, I may have to ask them to return,” says Shazia Shah, who runs a C-grade hotel.
She questions the hand-picking of Gulmarg on the issue of lease. “Nearly 6,000 leases across J&K have expired. In the Jammu province around 1,662 expired leases include hotels, petrol pumps, and commercial properties. Most auctioned properties in 1978-79 were for a lease period of 90-99 years, renewable after 40 years. The first 40 years expired in 2019, but the Land Grant Rules (of 2022) are now being applied retrospectively,” says Shah.
A senior government official says the elected government had suggested the formation of a committee to look into the matters of Gulmarg and review the rules passed by the L-G government. Most hoteliers say they were ready to pay rent as per market value of current times.
Nedou wants there to be a new lease renewal policy that the elected government puts in place. “The current lease holders should have the first right, as in the rest of the country,” he feels. He is hoping that the government intervene “so that Gulmarg remains a cultural bridge between the Valley and the outside world”.