Jammu & Kashmir, today, is witnessing a rapid environmental as well as degradation of political leadership. Aggressive development proceeds with little visible mitigation, and the consequences are beginning to show across its valleys and slopes. Distances are being shortened; connectivity is improved remarkablly. But, all this, at the cost of environment; Neither the implementing agencies nor the UT government has a concrete mitigation plan for rejuvenation of the environment, damaged badly due to a spree of development of new road networks, ring roads and National Highway projects. Political leadership, which is custodian of ecology and environment, has maintained a silence. For them, organising film festivals, inauguration of parks & gardens, organising and running in marathons are more important issues than taking urgent measures to rejuvenate the badly damaged fragile ecology, to meet the challenges caused by cutting of lacs of old towering trees in the name of development resulting in rising temperatures, melting glaciers, precipitation causing excessive rainfall, cloudbursts, flash floods becoming a cause for large scale destruction; Loss of properties and human lives. The government seems unconcerned about removing encroachments from river shores, flood-plain areas, nullahs which increases the nature’s fury multifold times, during torrential downpour. No comprehensive plans are made to restructure the city drains and nullahs, stabilise the loose soil steep slopes which become cause for devastation during the heavy rainfalls.
Only, till few years back, The tourists and travellers, travelling to Srinagar, were welcomed by the scenic beauty of landscapes and a mesmerizing green corridor, comprising old towering chinar, poplar and willow trees forming natural green tunnels along the roughly 68-km route on Anantnag Srinagar highway. It was beautiful nature a living infrastructure – cooling the road and temperature in nearby surroundings, softening summer heat, sheltering birds, and offering travellers an unforgettable first impression of the Valley. That canopy was destroyed brutally, by the implementing agencies of NHAI, in the name of highway widening. The result is a wider road, but a hotter, barer and culturally poorer corridor. This is a small part of lacs of trees having been cut down to pave way for national highway widening, expressway and ring roads projects. Mountains are blasted to carve concrete and bitumen arteries through sensitive geology, a practice that destabilizes slopes, fragments habitats and accelerates sedimentation of rivers and lakes.
The political leadership is silent, without a single iota of pain for our environment, being damaged badly, without a strong mitigation plan for its rejuvenation! For them, number of trees cut down are not important, their only concern remains about number of people voting for them. They won’t plan or take any concrete measures to save our environment, save our ecology, save our forests.
Forest and state lands stand encroached. But, the political leadership is busy in issuing such statements as might enrage emotions of people, attract groups of fundamentalists to vote for their political party; to divert public attention from their failures in performing even basic duties; their failures in fulfilling promises made during the election campaigns.
40,000 posts lying vacant in government departments, but the present leadership showing no interest in filling these posts, on fast track basis, to give a little relief to a big force of technically qualified unemployed youths, doing petty/ precarious jobs at monthly remuneration between Rs 8000 to Rs 15000; A big force of daily wagers looking towards the political leadership to fulfill their promise made for their regularisation. The ignorant farmers and growers, misguided by a strong mafia of agrochemicals manufacturers & dealers, have to part away with a major share of their total income in purchasing chemical pesticides and fertilizers; There are documented evidences that the excessive sprays of chemical pesticides and fertilizers are being made in fields and orchards of J&K. There are serious effects on health of farm workers, their families, people living in surrounding areas, soil, air, ground water, rivers and lakes;
The number of cancer patients has increased drastically in J&K, estimated to have crossed 70,000. But the government feels no urgency in tackling this problem; They have adopted a casual approach for reasons best known to them.
At the same time, rampant illegal mining, unchecked unmanageable city wastes, plastic pollution and the steady encroachment and shrinking of water bodies are degrading our ecosystems that sustain local communities. Public records and media reports have linked politically and economically powerful people to illegal occupation of forest and state land. Political leadership, in Jammu and Kashmir, generally found reluctant to take actions to remove encroachments on river flood-plain areas, forest or state lands. Half hearted actions being taken that too facing tough resistance from the political groups.
The Environment Ministry’s apparent preoccupation with sanctioning clearances, rather than preventing harm or enforcing remedies, has hollowed out the public role of ecological stewardship. They seem more interested in settlement of a particular section of people in forests rather than maintenance of the biodiversity in forests. Without proactive planning—zoning that protects fragile slopes and recharge areas, binding restoration obligations, independent impact monitoring and effective penalties for violations—development becomes synonymous with degradation.
The human cost is already tangible. Farmers, fishers and small traders see their incomes threatened as water bodies silt up and biodiversity collapses; health burdens rise as air and water quality decline; communities face heightened disaster risk from landslides and flash floods on denuded slopes. There has been a planning to destroy Raika forests (lungs of Jammu) for constructing the J&K Highcourt complex as well as to accommodate few other offices there. There is a tough resistance from local people, but the political leadership, the Environment Ministry keep a mysterious silence.
Why this apathy from the political leadership? Part of the answer lies in political incentives that favour rapid, tangible projects over slow, preventive investments. Roads and buildings are visible proofs of development that politicians can point to during elections campaigns; appeasement policy adopted by political groups to appeas perticular sections of society only to muster votes. Long-term ecological stewardship rarely translates into immediate votes.
But responsibility does not rest with politicians alone. Voters, too, share in the consequences of their choices. Widespread economic hardships— rising prices combined with food adulteration, high electricity power tariffs, unemployment, increasing drugs menace in the society, poorly paid private jobs and inadequate health and education services—has left most of the citizens with little option or awareness to demand ecological governance. In such a climate, electorates often prioritise immediate material promises and visible infrastructure over the invisible but vital work of conserving ecosystems. This dynamic has repeatedly returned to power leaders whose manifestos and rhetoric leaned toward rapid development but who have failed to translate promises into accountable, sustainable governance. The outcome is a vicious cycle: voters elect leaders who promise quick fixes; those leaders deliver visible projects that damage the environment; long-term ecological decline then further erodes livelihoods and civic capacity. These political leaderships intoxicate public with inflammatory and provocative speechs to divert their attention from a number of failures of the political leadership in fulfilling its promises, performing it’s basic duties, it’s misgovernance and an ecological disaster during their rule.
Young people, confronted with scarce jobs and failing public services, have little political bargaining power and are often forced into informal, petty works that offers no leverage to demand better governance. In short, the people of J&K are paying twice—first through degraded nature that once sustained them, and second through leadership that has failed to protect those natural assets, generate and safeguard the livelihood, providing the upto the mark basic facilities like cheap electricity power, clean drinking water, health services, safe unadulterated food, reducing single use plastics & excessive usage of agrochemicals in orchards and fields, removing encroachments on river shores, flood-plain areas & seasonal nullahs, saving forests & the fragile ecology from encroachments as well as from destruction and so on, this is a long list.
Political leaders must be held accountable not only for road kilometres laid or buildings inaugurated, but for the environmental legacy of those projects. The Forest, Ecology and Environment Ministry should reclaim its role as guardian of landscapes—insisting on no-go zones, binding restoration commitments, transparent monitoring and community co-management—rather than acting chiefly as a gatekeeper for approvals. Citizens and civil society must also reassert their voice, demanding transparency, legal enforcement and an electoral agenda that places long-term ecological resilience alongside immediate material needs.
If J&K’s governance continues to favour short-term visibility over long-term viability, the region risks losing its natural capital: water, soil, forests and the biodiversity that underpins livelihoods and cultural identity. The choice before voters and leaders alike is stark: tolerate the slow erosion of an irreplaceable environment for the promise of quick gains, or demand a different politics—one that binds development to ecological responsibility and restores both the land and the public trust it sustains.
The author is an Environmental Advocate and Policy Writer.
