By: Gh. Hassan Bhat
My name is Children Park Gulmarg. I am situated in extreme south west in the famous Alipatri valley under the foothills of Afterwat and amidst the beautiful meadows and coniferous forests of Gulmarg. I am the park in solitude built for local visitors, children outings as well as tourists from abroad. My entry fees is rupees ten and twenty for young and adults respectively.
But I am extremely saddened for, to express my shabby outlook even being the part of the world famous and beautiful tourist destination. I was built for amusements, elderly to wash out their daily miseries, for young’s to motivate their daily life dejections and other recreational activities for children to bloom in the natural settings, but story of my scene is worse than ever. The stagnant water inside my boundary has let my natural beauty to perish. The broken sitting chairs for visitors seated inside my body are blot over my green carpet. No proper gaming gadgets for children have always injured my conscience. The dried up grass highlights my ever ending thirst, reduces the greenery stature and erodes the beauty if any remained. The other amusement things are over dated or completely useless. I am Worst pollution hit in form of garbage can be seen everywhere to make every one hurt and blot on my face. No washroom facility in my Vicinity which is again a serious trouble for all my visitors visiting me. Small wooden bridges are completely damaged and can prove disastrous for children anytime. Stray dogs are a serious threat to everyone and can prove a serious danger to children in particular. My screaming is.
Besides flooded employees mainly to maintain my outlook, they hardly prefer my status over their domestic workings. I feel ashamed for being part of this Gulmarg now. No one comes to my rescue.
My request to all stakeholders is to look at my pathetic condition. I need to regain my beauty, my charming for whom I am built here. To enchant people fixing some permanent dustbins would be a best effort in this regard. Some informative boards, banners carrying different do’s and don’ts for visitors would also be great to improve my beauty. Reconstruction or repiarment of those small wood bridges can be a good gesture for all pedestrians to avoid any misfortune with them anytime. Beautification of my stream which is flowing inside me can be a eco-friendly effort and shall definitely add to my scenic beauty.
I would also beseech my visitors to protect and preserve me from the dirt and other waste material. I am natural resource belongs to you all. Conservation of this resource particularly by means of reducing the non-biodegradable material would prove a miracle for the sustainable management of my whole area.
The writer is a teacher. hussain.hassan95@gmail.com
