SHANGLA: The high altitude Kral Sar valley with a beautiful lake and serene environment is attracting tourists in numbers with the start of summer season.

It is located 10 kilometres from the main Bisham-Swat Road and connects Alpuri, Koz Kana and Lilonai areas.

Tourists from Alpuri, Lilonai, Pir Abad and Dehrai recently visited the lush green Kral valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains to enjoy its charming beauty. They also played cricket in the lush green fields.

“We visit the Kral Sar valley every year when the summer season begins to spend some time there to enjoy the pure nature away from pollution and traffic noise,” Matiullah Sameer, a nature lover from Alpuri, said.

The tourists said Kral Sar had vast meadows and a beautiful lake. Due to its altitude, it gives the visitors an eye-catching view of the surrounding areas, they added.

Fazal Mawjood, a teacher, said although entire Shangla district was blessed with natural beauty, Kral Sar was a place, which one would love to visit time and again. He said he along with a group of people spent a day in the beautiful valley, playing cricket, cooking food and enjoying its cool and relaxed environment.

Khyal Mohammad, another nature lover, said the road leading to the scenic valley needed to be carpeted as currently only jeeps could ply on the dirt track. He said a blacktopped road would certainly help attract more and more visitors to the valley, thus generating the much-needed revenue for the tourism department.

The local tourists also demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to include Kral Sar in its tourist destinations list. They said development of the tourist site would also generate employment opportunities for the locals.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2020