Kufri’s pony owners, hit by the lockdown, hope to earn enough to repay loans, feed their animals and end Covid year on a better note.
Nine months after the Covid-19 outbreak, the tourist destination of Kufri, 15km from Shimla, is finally seeing signs of revival thanks to the recent spells of snowfall. It’s back to business for scores of pony owners, who were rendered jobless with the decline in tourism this year.
Kufri has been seeing a steady rush of tourists over the past five days since the latest spell of snow. The local economy is largely dependent on tourists.
Kufri was a sleepy hamlet till Bollywood films shot here in the’60s and ’70s made its snow-covered slopes a popular tourist destination.
At present, there are an estimated 1,200 ponies engaged in giving joy rides to tourists. They make their way to Kufri from adjoining villages daily.
During the lockdown, most of the pony owners worked in fields and grew vegetables.
“The last nine months have been tough in Kufri. There was no work and it had become difficult to even buy fodder for the ponies,” says Kedar Kanwar, who heads the Ashwa Palak Pratyatak Sangh, a local group of 20 horse owners.
The summer months of May and June are the peak tourist season in Kufri followed by the winter months of November, December and January amid snowfall.
The owners who bought horses last year are the worst affected as they have not been able to repay loans raised for buying the ponies.
Photographers in Kufri, too, hope that the tourist influx will help revive their business.
The pony owners say that the Himachal Pradesh government’s decision to impose night curfew to check the spread of Covid-19 has hit business.
