Cabins stand at the base station of the ropeway that has been closed. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Oct. 20: Arati Sharma puckered her eyebrows as she looked up at the Darjeeling Rangeet Valley Ropeway in the early morning sunlight. There were no cabins moving through mid-air today, taking the tourists across the 2.5-km stretch from Singamari to Vah-Tukvar. Neither were any chattering tourists sitting on the small benches outside her kiosk and eating her momos.

Sharma had reasons to worry. She had to support a 10-member family and the income came from the small tea-and-snack stall that she ran ever since the Vah Tukvar tea estate closed down in 1995.

Yesterday’s ropeway disaster, which killed 4 tourists and injured 11, had taken away all her customers. And they were not likely to return in a hurry with the administration’s decision to close the cable car service for an indefinite period.

There are around 25 such families who share the same concern as Sharma.

Hundreds of tourists take the ropeway to commute from Singamari to Vah-Tukvar every day at the height of the tourist season.

A large chunk also visit the tea gardens in downhill Vah-Tukvar, taking snaps and strolling along the hilly path.

Now there would be no more of those tourists.

“I was looking forward to a good business season this year. My earnings have not been good in the past few months but now things seem to be approaching a dead end,” said a crestfallen Sharma.

On a good day in October, these tea stall owners would earn around Rs 1,500.

Sharma’s father, S.P. Sharma, worked as a night watchman at the ropeway but his income was insufficient to run the family.

Rachana Thapa, who owns a stall next to Sharma, cannot stop talking about how well her shop was doing in the past few days.

“Yesterday’s accident was terrible. I feel bad for the tourists but also I cannot stop thinking about the future. How will I earn the money? I may not have to feed a family as large as Sharma’s but I am still worried. I had just stocked my shops with goods worth Rs 3,000 a couple of days ago and now it will go waste. I cannot afford that,” she added.

Ramvilas, another tea stall owner, echoed her thoughts.

He narrated how difficult life had been after the tea garden had closed down eight years ago.

“There was no compensation for people like us. We got nothing. No one bothered to think how we would survive after the tea garden closed. We set up these eateries to cater to the tourists and managed to earn something. Now, even that is gone,” said the seventy-something man, bunching his forehead in a frown.

Even as these stalls wore a deserted look, a number of tourists were spotted at the site of the accident today, camera in hand.

“We heard about the tragedy and wanted to come and get a glimpse of it. It is such a sad thing to happen in such a beautiful place like this,” said one of them, a Parsee from Pune.