At around 3 am on December 3, as Farooq Ahmad Nagoo and the five members of his family were fast asleep in their houseboat moored on the ba...
At around 3 am on December 3, as Farooq Ahmad Nagoo and the five members of his family were fast asleep in their houseboat moored on the banks of the river Jehlum in Srinagar, they were awakened by water gushing up through the floorboards.
“It sank within minutes,” recalled Umar Farooq, Farooq Ahmad Nagoo’s son. “We could barely salvage any of our belongings.”
Crying for help in the dead of the cold night, the family was saved from drowning by people living on the banks of the river. Since then, Nagoo and his family have been living in a tent on the river banks. Nearby, a makeshift tarpaulin canopy serves as a kitchen.
The Nagoo family’s houseboat was the seventh in Srinagar to have sunk since July. “This has happened for the first time in the entire history of houseboats in Kashmir,” said Mohammad Yaqoob Dunno, the spokesperson of the Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association.
Essential part of the tourist list
For tourists to the Valley, staying a few nights on an intricately-carved wooden houseboat like the one owned by the Nagoo’s is part of the must-do list. Many houseboats are furnished with lush carpets, beautiful glass lamps and serve up elaborate Kashmiri meals.
The Kashmir Valley, in which tourism is a vital...
