MANSEHRA: The forestry department has planned to revive the historic Monroe hiking trail here insisting the initiative will promote ecotourism in the province.

The 64km-long trail built by the British government was abandoned after the country’s independence in 1947 but is still used by the people of Siren and Kaghan valleys and those settled alongside it during the summer season.

Mohammad Asim of Siren valley told Dawn that the residents moved from one place to another through the historic trail by horses and ponies or on foot in summers.

He said snow blanketed the region during the winter season.

When contacted, divisional forest officer of Siran valley Mudassir Hasan, who heads the Monroe trail revival project, said the forestry department was going to revive the pre-Partition track.

Official insists move to promote ecotourism

“This mountainous trail established in early 1906 is to be revived under the Environmental Tourism Initiative in this summer season,” he said.

Mr Hassan said his department had put up a prefabricated tentage village in Siran valley on the Kaghan valley route from Kund Medan village.

He said the forestry department had already established a ‘seasonal information centre’ in Kund Medan area and would put up tentage villages in different areas for tourists.

The DFO said the department, as part of plans to create opportunities for respectable livelihood for the communities settled along the ancient trail for centuries, would lease out tentage villages to the locals.

“The initiative will not only promote ecotourism by attracting visitors from within the country and abroad but create livelihood opportunities for locals as well,” he said.

Mr Hasan said a tentage village would soon be set up in Shaeed Pani area on the way to Kaghan valley.

Meanwhile, trekker Nayyar Shahzad, who led a group of locals on the Monroe trail at the start of the summer season, told Dawn that the adventurous journey began from Shinkiari town to Kund Medan village in jeeps.

“We later reached Shaheed Banglaw, Pani and Shiddle Gali before entering the Kaghan valley and descended towards Nadi Bangla through meadows of Tarkana and Batchurian,” he said.

The trekker said words failed him when it came to his awesome hiking experience in the heavenly land.

“The entire Monroe zigzags through untouched forests, meadows and snow-capped mountains,” he said, adding that the people used the track to reach Kaghan from Siren valley.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2022