The Lansdowne Hotel Association said they will “go to any lengths to stop the Lansdowne Cantonment Board’s (LCB) recent decision to rename the town ‘Jaswantgarh’, after 1962 India-China war hero Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat. They alleged that if the name change happens, it will “undo years of efforts to put Lansdowne on the tourist map” and prove to be a “death warrant” for the local tourism industry, the town’s mainstay.
Office-bearers of the hoteliers’ body said that they will be approaching the high court soon and plan to meet chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retired) to press their case.
Colonel TC Sharma (retired), president of the Lansdowne hotel association, said, “It took us over 15 years to put our serene hill station on the tourism map. From local hoteliers to travel agents in Delhi as well as other cities, everyone worked together to make Lansdowne a brand of sorts. Renaming it will undo all those efforts in one go. It will create widespread confusion among tourists wanting to visit the place, which would be disastrous as the entire ecosystem of Lansdowne depends on tourism.”
Asked about their future course of action, Sharma said, “We have got an appointment with the chief minister to discuss the matter. We will place our objections before him. We will also meet the governor. Besides, we will definitely challenge the proposal in the high court. It is a matter of our identity and that of all stakeholders.”
As per the officials, the guidelines of the state tourism department advised the tourists to be safe and enjoy the beauty of the hills. “Tourists should strictly follow guided trek routes. While traffic congestion may eventually clear, the primary concern lies with tourists venturing onto unguided trek routes,” they said.
Meanwhile, the proposal to rename the town as Jaswantgarh has been sent to the directorate general of defence estates (DGDE) of the central command, Lucknow.
Binita Jakhmola, the office superintendent of LCB, told TOI, “The decision to rename Lansdowne as Jaswantgarh was taken at the board meeting, which was chaired by Brigadier Vijay Mohan Choudhary recently. It was in accordance with the decision of the ministry of defence to change the British-era names of cantonment boards and related places.”
Earlier, the town was called “Kalaun ka Danda”, which means a hill surrounded by dark clouds. Later, it was named Lansdowne 132 years ago, after Henry Charles Keith Petty-Firzmaurice, the fifth Marquess of Lansdowne, who was the viceroy of India from 1888 to 1894.
