Ambulance Boat at Dal Lake, Kashmir
Syed Askari, Regional Facilitator, Pallium India, writes:
I travelled to Jammu and Kashmir in November 2023 with Ms. Gilly Burn to attend her sessions at various organizations. It was during this trip that we met Mr. Tariq Ahmad Patloo, who resides in Dal Lake.
Mr. Tariq Ahmad makes his living by renting out his personal houseboat to tourists. He was born and raised in Dal Lake. He is an extremely fascinating individual. He built the ambulance boat to ensure the survival of the residents of the community across Dal Lake as well as the safety of the tourists.
(Image 1: Ambulance Boat at Dal Lake)
When we asked him about his inspiration for the ambulance boat, he said, “I was suffering from COVID-19, and no one came to support me. I was alone there. At that time, I thought that if I survive, I will build an ambulance boat to support the community through this.”
It was incredibly expensive to build an ambulance boat while he was looking for one, so he modified the Shikara boat with the assistance of an NGO. In addition to the ambulance boat, he is working on the Jannat Mission, which involves cleaning up Dal Lake.
(Image 2: The session by Gilly Burn at Paras Hospital at Srinagar.)
In our talk, he expressed worry to us about constructing stairs to the Dal Lake bank so he could transfer his patients immediately to Paras Hospital, which is located on the bank of Dal Lake. Therefore, the following day, we had our session at Paras Hospital. He accompanied us there, and during Ms. Gilly Burn’s session, she introduced Mr. Tariq to Paras Hospital in regards to his request that stairs be built at the Dal Lake side so that he could take the patient directly to Paras Hospital.
After the session, he expressed great satisfaction that we had taken notice of his concern and had introduced him. We hope that he achieves his dream.
(Image 3: Syed Askari with Mr.Tariq Ahmad at Paras Hospital during Gilly’s session.)
Watch this video about Mr Tariq Ahmad:
Tariq Ahmed did a great job & particularly his efforts made this mission successful. When this area is so important, & tourist hub . The authorities, never thought , to curb , the most important assistances for this area especially, when the tourist remains in need any time & locals . Definitely in general, people are struggling, to move the patient on fast track. There is so many reasons, the instabil , & stormy climate sometime . Dal lake is a huge area , with one emergency services, it’s not sufficient, to curtail . I think, authorities must learn, from this one individual person , Tariq , who made possible, to ease the lives of the people, especially tourist, living in these houseboats. But , one emergency boat will not be sufficient, in entire Dallake , to meet the challenges. Authorities should not neglect, & must provide full emergency infrastructure in this area , more probably a mobile medical provisions, to accertain the situations , 24/7.