’65-year-old also plays vital role in rescuing those who get stuck in snow or landslides, demands infrastructure to woo more tourists to spot’
Imran Shah
Kishtwar, (TDD): At the age of 65, Mohamdu is thriving and ticking at Margan Top, one of the picturesque tops, rather a sanctuary of tranquillity in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district connecting Valley with Kishtwar on the other side.
Mohamdu, has been running the small hotel-cum Dhaba in a Dhoka type structure at Margan top for several decades no to just earn a living but to feed tourists including international and domestic, who come to him for tea, coffee or other refreshments.
“It’s a hard battle to be here. It’s hard to survive here. This top is 12000 feet above sea level,” said Mohamdu, while smoking the Hookah in the mud-made Dhaba.
There is no name to his Dhaba but yet he is famous for helping people in all forms. “This place is not to earn but to serve as well. I have saved so many tourists, locals and even animals who got stuck here.
Once you are stuck here, its difficult to survive. This area witnesses massive snowfall from seven to ten or even twelve feet at times,” he said. “I also shift from this place during extreme winters and come back only when weather improves.”
Mohamdu said that the Margan Top remains cut-off from district headquarters Anantnag and no one from Marwan, Kishtwar can reach there due to snow accumulation. “But when weather improves and snow melts in April-May, I open by restaurant again and serve team, rice, coffee, and other refreshments to tourists, locals and everyone who comes here,” he said.
For those who get stuck at Margan top, Mohamdu is a one-man army, rather a good volunteer. “I have saved many who got stuck here in the past over 30 years,” he said.
At Mohamdu’s Dhaba, there is no electricity but “Solar power” is what lighting the small Dhaba and lives of those who come to this place for tea or refreshments. “This is what I have got from the government,” Mohamdu said and called for infrastructure building around Margan Top.
The place, he said, has a great tourist potential especially for adventure tourism for foreign tourists. “If developed, this place can attract thousands of foreign as well as domestic tourists. If government explores this area, hundreds of youth can earn their livelihood,” he said—TDD)
