Thathri, Feb 04 (KNO): Taken from the Gojri phrase "Jannat Ma Roon" meaning "Living in Paradise", the word "Jantroon" is the name of a long meadow in Doda district situated at the upper reaches of Thathri subdivision.
The phrase was used before the 20th century by the Gujjar community belonging to Punjab, Haryana etc when they visit this place in summer's every year. Later, the phrase set as the name for this place, which slowly by the time was spoken as "Jantroon".
The meadow starts from Kahara tehsil on east and touches all the north-east and north-west area from Thathri Tehsil and south-east and south-west from Bhaderwah side and Chiralla tehsil at the other end. Jantroon is located in the centre of all these tehsils which belongs to Doda district.
Jantroon is famous for three-days-long dangal-cum-wrestling match which is organised every year and thousand of local tourists visit especially to witness the event.
The dangal match has an interesting history but it has not been given much importance in the history books. Though some historians have written about Jantroon and locals says almost all the historians have written the same version about the place.
A 70-year-old man Fazal Alam Wani from Chiralla said, "There was a person namely Mohammed Hanif Sheikh who retired from 17 Punjab Battalion (now in Lahore) during 1947. He was one of the renowned wrestler (Pehalwan) in the Bhaderwah riyasat (now Doda district)."
He said that the dangal culture was already followed in Chenab Valley but there wasn't any fixed location for this program and generally it was for one day.
In 1966, locals organised a dangal competition when a Pehalwan Lakmi Chand (army personnel) challenged Hanif Sheikh. However, instead of one-day, the match was scheduled for two days, later Hanif won that match.
"From that day, the dangal-cum-wrestling match is organised traditionally every year on 19th, 20th and 21st of the Sawan month (primarily during July and August)," Wani said.
On the southern side, Jantroon has a graveyard which is famous for 9 gaz (about 30 ft) graves. The locals said that these graves are of ancient times.
"There is no proper data regarding this place but some local authors and scholars namely Mohd Amin Pandit, Sukhdev Singh Charak and Mohd Shafi Sheikh have written on it. I remember Shafi Sheikh's book Virasat have written on the civil war in this area during 1947," Wani said.
However, Jantroon is not actually on the tourism map of J&K Tourism till date which is the main reason due to which road connectivity is abysmal to travel to the place. But recently Thathri administration along with Bhaderwah Development Authority has created an abstract and proposal was submitted to GoI regarding the development of Jantroon Dhar. The authorities are waiting for approval from GoI.
Another local Raja Shakeel from Joura area of Kahara Tehsil said, "People from other states or countries know us as Kashmir valley, our identity has been almost lost. Kashmir valley is far from us and our region is known as Chenab Valley, which is geographically defined by a research scholar Erik Norin in 1926 as The Relief Chronology of the Chenab Valley in an international journal."
"Ignorance of tourism department towards places like Jantroon etc is mainly due to politicians as they always focus on Kashmir and Jammu. This place has a very good tourist potential if the government takes some development measures in the area," he added.
Local tourists who visit the place, walks around 3 to 4 kilometres by foot from the nearest link road at Joura of Kahara Tehsil and Sunarthawa of Chiralla tehsil to reach Jantroon. Same is the case with people who visit from Phagsoo and Bhaderwah sides to reach the destination.
Talking with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), SDM Thathri Athar Amin Zargar said that he has been discussing this issue to BDA and higher authorities from the past 6 months.
"We have discussed many developmental plans which are possible in the area. The proposal has been submitted to Ministry of Tourism," Zargar said.
Zargar said that they are planning to link Jantroon from Kahara-Jai road at Joura Kalan which is about 2 kilometres away from the meadow.
Meanwhile, CEO Bhaderwah Development Authority Rajinder Khajuria said that a proposal of requirements have been drafted.
"Our technical team had visited the place to check water supply source, maintenance of ecology, disposal system etc. The proposal has been submitted to the government for development of Jantroon Dhar vis-a-vis construction of the road to this tourist destination," Khajuria said—(KNO)