CHITRAL: The villages in the valleys of Lot Koh, Kalash and Upper Chitral have been blanketed in yellow as the autumn season has set in which leaves of the deciduous plants changed to yellow, red and golden giving a spectacular view.

The local people connected with tourism industry said that Covid-19 badly affected the arrival of tourists to the area as a large number of them used to visit the area over the years fascinated by the rich autumn colour.

Iqbal Hayat, manager of a local hotel, said that he had not received a single booking of tourist for the season while in the past years, there used to be a great rush of visitors from down country and abroad as Chitral was considered to be one of the areas to offer rich falling season.

He said that the season was celebrated in different ways by holding ceremonies while most of the weddings were performed in that season.

He said that women preferred to wear yellow suits in that season and all those festivities added to the colours of the season and lured the visitors.

He said that ‘Chanchhori’ (the fall of leaves) was the local name of autumn season which had a deep impact on the lives of the residents and it had a romantic connotation in the local language in which it found frequent description in the folklore including poetry and songs giving it a romantic touch.

Mr Hayat said that local people were so fond of autumn colours that one of the princes of former ruling family, Shahzada Khosh Ahmadul Mulk, had specially grown a variety of trees in his garden in Ayun village that was visited by the tourists.

The villages of Booni, Mastuj, Khot, Garam Chashma, Oveer, Terich, Laspur, Awi-Dumadumi, Nogram, Karimabad and scores of other localities are known for their enormous autumn colours where poplar, chinar, mulberry and apricot trees are in high density.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2020