Last week, some tourists from Uttarakhand visited the residence of Insha, in her sleepy Aragam village, to see her library. The library, with an array of books arranged in apple-pie order, offers a diverse collection that caters to different interests from history to biography.

“My library houses more than 10,000 books,” said Insha, pursuing a degree in law.

The quaint tribal village, located a short drive from Wular Lake in Bandipora district, has been drawing tourists in droves since it was designated as a book village by Sarhad, a Pune-based socio-cultural non-governmental organisation in 2022.

Owais Ahmed, the then District Magistrate, told businessline that the promotion of village tourism was a key focus of the administration.

“Setting up of libraries in residents’ houses not only attracted bibliophiles but also promoted eco-friendly village tourism,” Ahmed said.

He said Gurez Valley in the district welcomed 50,000 tourists this year, compared to just 500 in the previous years.

Dozens of residential libraries in the village house between 1.5 lakh and 2 lakh books, attracting book lovers and tourists. Large signs displayed on the exterior walls of the houses give the entire village a distinctive appearance.

A selfie point, reading “The Book and Poetry Village”, has been created at the gateway of the village.

Siraj-ud-din Khan, a resident and Kashmir co-ordinator at Sarhad, said they initially converted one room in a few houses into libraries and put up signboards.

“Later, we set up libraries in a few more houses. Today, we have around 15 to 20 such libraries in this small hamlet, comprising 250 households,” said Khan.

Apart from these libraries, hundreds of books for competitive exams are available in a school.

According to Khan, Sarhad aimed to build a large library to house not only books but also some crucial manuscripts. A couple of months later, he said he applied for land allocation with the Revenue Department and completed the cumbersome paperwork.

However, at the final stage, he said, he was informed that there were no provisions with the government to allocate land to an NGO, which stymied further progress.

To accommodate the growing number of tourists, the NGO has applied for homestay registration. “Once registered, tourists and bibliophiles can opt for night stays in the village, which will boost the rural economy,” said Khan.