Demanchi offers Pakistani dishes, barbecue and trout fish on the menu, and provides an opportunity for travellers and locals to mingle. Taking it all in, I decide to make a pit stop at the Demanchi restaurant, perched a little high on the left side of Lulusar Lake. The Lulusar-Dudipatsar National Park and the Saiful Muluk National Park are true representatives of the alpine ecosystem and an excellent landscape that harbour scores of unspoilt alpine lakes, rich in their unique fauna and flora. Prohibited actions include, “logging, felling, tapping, burning or in any way damaging or destroying, taking, collecting or removing any plant or tree”, and “polluting or poisoning water flowing in and through the National Park.” The Act prohibits many actions that would impact the scenery, flora and fauna of the parks. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife and Biodiversity (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) Act 2015 extensively covers the do’s and don’ts at National Parks.
To keep this destructive behaviour in check, the Lulusar-Dudipatsar National Park and Saiful Muluk National Parks were established in 2003. But signs of gradual environmental degradation and callous human behaviour - indicative of unsustainable tourism and a runaway native population growth rate - are starting to show. Thick forests are still present across the valley but, because of extensive exploitation, thickets are mostly found in the unapproachable areas, especially on the higher slopes.Īnother 15 miles from Babusar Top leads to emerald green waters, gleaming with the reflection of the snow-capped mountains fencing Lulusar Lake the centre of the faerie Lulusar-Dudipatsar National Park. The Kunhar River basin is a humid, sub-tropical zone. But unregulated construction, encroachments, extraction and pollution along it is putting this lifeline under threat ‘A river doesn’t just carry water, it carries life.’ The Kunhar River, which runs all the way from the upper Kaghan Valley to below Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir is not just an integral part of Pakistan but home to breathtaking landscapes, biodiversity and habitation. Unfortunately, it seems, humankind cannot help but interfere with nature. The ones flanking the east bank of Kunhar River are home to the 17,200-feet-high Malika Parbat, and the 13,378-feet-high Musa ka Musalla in the west.įar from the madding city crowds, to be surrounded by so much natural beauty is a rare treat. The mountain ranges of Kaghan are offshoots of the great Himalayas, entering from the east through Kashmir.
#SERVANT OF THE DAWN DRIVER#
And after another 30 steep and twisty miles, the dazed driver is on top of Babusar - a mountain pass at 13,700 feet in the north of the valley. The meadows offer a dazzling view of the ‘Killer Mountain’, Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest peak at 26,660 feet. On KKH, 50 kilometres ahead lies Chilas - the gateway to the Kaghan Valley. A sharp left turn and a hair-raising 45-minute jeep ride to Tattu village, followed by a 2-hour trek, put you in pole position for a night stay at the 13,000-feet-high Fairy Meadows. Sand and gravel excavators and dumpers near Sohach Bridge in what locals say is ‘the biggest-ever gravel-lifting operation in the Kunhar riverbed’ | Photos by the author / White Starĭriving from Gilgit to Kaghan, the glittery alpine scenery on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) abruptly changes to a rather desolate - but equally breathtaking - landscape, as one crosses the Indus at Raikot Bridge.