Forest dept order restricting number of horses in Kufri worries horsemen

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], November 3 : The horsemen in the Kufri hill station here are worried after the state's forest department issued directions to restrict the number of horses used for transporting tourists to 217. The order came following the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in this regard.
Scores of locals from 12 village panchayats are worried about their businesses, and there are many who earn their livelihood as horsmen. These horsemen and local residents are not ready to reduce the number, as there are nearly 1,029 horses registered with the district administration.
Thousands of tourists come to visit Shimla, the queen of hills. But most of the tourists prefer to go to Kufri for snowfall and horseback riding. The local residents employed in the tourism business believe that if there is no horseback riding in Kufri, then the tourists will be disappointed and no one would prefer to visit this part of the hill .

"We have nearly 1,000 horses here and those running these horses here are farmers from the nearby villages. With one horseman, there are 15 dependencies. Keeping in mind the employment here, this decision of the NGT and the department will end our livelihood," said Ishwarlal Chandel, President of the Horsemen's Association at Kufri.
"The tourists, locals and other people will get affected. No tourists will come here after you reduce the number of horses, as no one will wait to get a horse. We have already held meetings with the Special Area Development Authority (SADA). We have been working here for the last 30 years. We will fight for our cause on whatever platform we have to use to save our livelihood," he added.
Tourists are taken on horseback to Mahasu Peak in Kufri. This track is about 2 kilometers and it takes about 30 minutes. Due to the rough road, tourists are taken to Mahasu Peak by horseback.
These horses are not only the main centre of attraction for tourists but also a source of livelihood for thousands of families.
"We have 8 groups and we have 1,029 registered horses. We are registered under the Special Area Development Authority (SADA). It has been imposed on us that we are responsible for the pollution here. If they arrange any job for us, we don't have any objections to removing our horses. We will fight for this," said Rajinder Singh, another leader of horsemen.
The forest department has started the process of restricting the number of horses and has fixed it to 217 as per NGT directions.