Jahangeer Ganaie
Gulmarg, Feb 4: Gulmarg, the famous tourist spot of Jammu and Kashmir has become home to India’s first and biggest Igloo Cafe started by the Kolahoi Green Group of Hotels and Resorts in Gulmarg for the second consecutive year.
Employees of Kolahoi Green Group of Hotels and Resorts said that like last year this year they have again built an igloo but a much bigger one.
“The concept of a snow cafe was new to Kashmir although it has been tested successfully in Finland, Canada, Switzerland and some other countries. When it was built last year, we saw a huge rush of tourists,” they said.
“We wanted to serve our guests in a unique way and in a very unique accommodation and the idea of doing something dramatic for our guests and patrons has worked as it has attracted a large number of tourists last year. We are hopeful that the same will happen this year as dozens of tourists are coming to just see this igloo this year which will be inaugurated on Friday evening,” they said.
This year igloo is 38 feet high and 44 feet in diameter and is enough to accommodate around three dozen guests while as last year the snow cafe measuring 22 feet in diameter and 12.5 feet in height, from inside was enough to accommodate four tables with sixteen guests at any point of time.
The task was accomplished with a team of around 20 members headed by Syed Waseem Shah and Kolahoi team working in shifts.
“The project was completed in two months and took around 1700 working days to complete it,” they said, adding that to make the seating comfortable, we used sheep hides to make a person sitting on snow feel warm and tables and benches are all made of snow and ice.
The igloo will be thrown open for the public on Friday evening and the response has been very good as dozens of people have already booked tables, they said, adding that hopefully the cafe would remain functional till the end of February.
“A guest can spend about one hour inside the igloo or till he/she feels cold and to give it a traditional touch, a Kashmiri art work with hand engraved Kashmir copper samovar has been placed there,” they said.
They claimed that this is the biggest igloo cafe in the whole World and they have applied for the Guinness World Record.
Pertinently, an Igloo is also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of snow, typically built when the snow is suitable.
Moreover igloos are often associated with all Inuit and Eskimo peoples, they were traditionally used only by the people of Canada’s Central Arctic and Greenland’s Thule area.
Other Inuit tended to use snow to insulate their houses, which were constructed from whalebone and hides. Snow is used because the air pockets trapped in it make it an insulator.
