Perched at an altitude of 8,500 feet above the sea level, nippy weather has already set in at one of India’s winter wonderlands, the tourist hotspot Gulmarg. The green table-top meadow located in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district is spread over three square kilometres, with the imposing peaks and slopes of the Pir Panjal ranges of Himalayas on the West and the vast expanse of Srinagar and its surrounding mountain peaks on the East.

In the meadow’s first ever inn, the double-storeyed Nedous Hotel, the lupines and hollyhocks have started to wither away. The 137-year-old chalet, with a facade of well-seasoned deodar bark has been sealed with a white tape and an official stamp since August 2 this year.

The hotel has become the first lease structure to be taken over by the Gulmarg Development Authority (GDA) from the first family of hoteliers, the Nedous. Officials at the GDA say the Nedous lease expired in 1985 and the family failed to renew it. In 2015, the J&K High Court dismissed the plea for renewal. This year, the GDA declared the Nedous family as “an unauthorized occupant under the J&K Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1988”. But many local hoteliers rue the decision and fear for their future too. There is no privately owned land in Gulmarg; all of it is government-owned.

The winter-sports destination that is set to witness the first ever auction of existing hotels after J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha introduced the J&K Land Grant Rules in 2022, which replaced the J&K Land Grants Rules, 1960.