Kashmir exerts a powerful emotional pull. Millions of sweltering, plains-dwelling Indians and Pakistanis dream of its green mountains, its blue rivers and lakes, its fertile farmlands and cool, dry climate. [Here, residents stroll through a park in autumn.] Lush fields and placid lakes once drew more than half a million visitors a year, but deadly civil unrest—feuding between Pakistan and India over the disputed region—has shattered Kashmir's calm and way of life and left tourism in shambles.
(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Kashmir: Trapped in Conflict," September 1999, National Geographic magazine)
