Review Article
Year: 2019 | Month: November | Volume: 6 | Issue: 11 | Pages: 113-116
Chardham Yatra: A Trend of Tourism before and After 2013 Flash Floods, Uttarakhand Himalaya
Shardul Semwal1, Brij M Upreti2
1Department of Geography, D.B.S (P.G) College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand,
2Department of Botany, Uttaranchal College of Science and Technology, Dehradun
Corresponding Author: Shardul Semwal
ABSTRACT
Uttarakhand, the devbhoomi, is one of the major pilgrimage centre in the country. The chardham yatra attracts lakhs of tourist every year. Indeed, the pilgrimage tourism is a major contributor in the state’s economy. This tourism suffered a harsh blow in June 2013 flash floods of Kedarnath which killed thousands of pilgrims and left many stranded. The devastation was so vast that it was even termed as ‘THE HIMALAYAN TSUNAMI’. The paper analyzes the spirit of tourist before and after the disaster. An analysis of both the foreigner and national tourist has been done to study the trends of tourism in the chardham region. Religion, faith, customs being intangible beliefs can still be measured in terms of number of people visiting a place in a particular span of time. Thus, this paper not only analyzes the number of tourist inflow but also their faith and undying spirit before and after the floods. For the study the tourist inflow the data from 2008 to 2018 has been accounted for the chardham only.
Key words: Chardham yatra , flash floods , tourism, Uttarakhand
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