Jammu and Kashmir is today witnessing rapid environmental degradation alongside a decline in political leadership. Aggressive development is proceeding with little visible effort towards environmental mitigation, and its consequences are beginning to emerge across the region’s valleys and mountain slopes. Distances are being shortened and connectivity is improving remarkably. However, all this is coming at a significant cost to the environment.

 

Neither the implementing agencies nor the Union Territory government appears to have a concrete mitigation plan for restoring the ecology damaged by the extensive construction of new road networks, ring roads and national highway projects. The political leadership, which should act as the custodian of the region’s ecology and environment, has largely maintained silence.

 

For those in power, organising film festivals, inaugurating parks and gardens, and organising and participating in marathons seem to take precedence over urgent measures to restore the region’s fragile ecology. The large-scale felling of hundreds of thousands of old, towering trees in the name of development has contributed to environmental deterioration, while rising temperatures, melting glaciers, changing precipitation patterns, excessive rainfall, cloudbursts and flash floods have increasingly become causes of widespread destruction, resulting in the loss of property and human lives.

 

The government also appears unconcerned about removing encroachments along riverbanks, floodplains and natural drainage channels, which significantly aggravate the impact of nature's fury during torrential rainfall. No comprehensive plans appear to have been formulated to restructure urban drainage systems and natural water channels or stabilise loose soil on steep slopes, which often become a source of devastation during heavy rainfall.

 

Until just a few years ago, tourists and travellers arriving in Srinagar were welcomed by breathtaking landscapes and a mesmerising green corridor comprising old, towering chinar, poplar and willow trees. These trees formed natural green tunnels along the approximately 68-kilometre Anantnag-Srinagar highway. It was a beautiful example of nature functioning as living infrastructure—cooling the road and its surrounding areas, moderating summer temperatures, providing shelter to birds and offering travellers an unforgettable first impression of the Valley.

 

That magnificent canopy was brutally destroyed by the implementing agencies of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the name of highway widening. The result is a wider road, but a hotter, barer and culturally poorer corridor. This is only one example of the hundreds of thousands of trees felled to make way for national highway widening, expressway and ring road projects.

 

Mountains are being blasted to carve out concrete and bitumen corridors through geologically sensitive areas. Such practices destabilise slopes, fragment natural habitats and accelerate sedimentation in rivers and lakes.

 

The political leadership remains silent, seemingly without an iota of concern for the environment being damaged on such a massive scale. There is no strong, comprehensive mitigation plan for its restoration. For those in power, the number of people voting for them appears to matter far more than the number of trees being cut down. They seem unwilling to formulate or implement concrete measures to protect the environment, preserve the region's ecology and safeguard its forests.

 

Forest and state lands continue to face encroachments. Meanwhile, political leaders appear more occupied with issuing statements that inflame public emotions and appeal to particular groups of voters to secure electoral support. Such political rhetoric often diverts public attention from their failures to perform even basic responsibilities and fulfil promises made during election campaigns.

 

Nearly 40,000 government posts are reportedly lying vacant across various departments, yet the present leadership has shown little urgency in filling them on a fast-track basis. This has added to the hardships of thousands of technically qualified unemployed youths, many of whom are compelled to undertake petty and precarious jobs for monthly remuneration ranging between Rs 8,000 and Rs 15,000.

 

A large number of daily wagers are also waiting for the political leadership to fulfil its promise of regularising their services.

 

Meanwhile, farmers and fruit growers, often misled by a powerful network of agrochemical manufacturers and dealers, are compelled to spend a substantial share of their earnings on chemical pesticides and fertilisers. There is documented evidence of excessive pesticide spraying and fertiliser use in agricultural fields and orchards across Jammu and Kashmir. These practices have serious implications for the health of farm workers, their families and people living in surrounding areas, besides adversely affecting soil quality, air, groundwater, rivers and lakes.

 

The number of cancer patients in Jammu and Kashmir has increased significantly and is estimated to have crossed 70,000. Yet, the government appears to have shown little urgency in addressing this growing public health concern, adopting an approach that raises serious questions about its priorities.

 

At the same time, rampant illegal mining, poorly managed urban waste, plastic pollution and the continued encroachment and shrinking of water bodies are degrading the ecosystems that sustain local communities.

 

Public records and media reports have linked politically and economically influential individuals to the illegal occupation of forest and state lands. Political leadership in Jammu and Kashmir has generally appeared reluctant to take decisive action against encroachments on river floodplains, forests and government land. Whatever action is taken often appears half-hearted and faces stiff resistance from political groups.

 

The Forest, Ecology and Environment Ministry's apparent preoccupation with granting clearances, rather than preventing environmental damage and ensuring effective remedial action, has weakened its role as a guardian of the region's ecological heritage.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp ChannelThere are concerns that the emphasis appears to be shifting towards facilitating the settlement of a particular section of people in forest areas rather than prioritising the conservation of biodiversity and the protection of forest ecosystems.

 

Without proactive planning—including zoning regulations to protect fragile slopes and groundwater recharge areas, binding restoration obligations, independent environmental impact monitoring and effective penalties for violations—development risks becoming synonymous with environmental degradation.

 

The human cost of this neglect is already becoming evident. Farmers, fishers and small traders are seeing their livelihoods threatened as water bodies become silted and biodiversity declines. Public health risks are increasing as air and water quality deteriorate, while communities face heightened disaster risks from landslides and flash floods, particularly in areas where slopes have been stripped of vegetation.

 

There are also concerns over the proposed use of Raika forests, regarded as the lungs of Jammu, for constructing the Jammu and Kashmir High Court complex and accommodating a number of other government offices. Local residents have strongly opposed the proposal, but the political leadership and the Environment Ministry have maintained a mysterious silence.

 

Why does this apathy persist within the political leadership?

 

Part of the answer lies in political incentives that favour rapid, visible development projects over long-term preventive investments. Roads and buildings are tangible achievements that politicians can showcase during election campaigns. Similarly, appeasement politics, adopted by various political groups to win the support of particular sections of society, often takes precedence over responsible governance. Long-term ecological conservation, by contrast, rarely translates into immediate electoral gains.

 

However, responsibility does not rest with politicians alone. Voters, too, share the consequences of their electoral choices.

 

Widespread economic hardships—including rising prices, food adulteration, high electricity tariffs, unemployment, the growing drug menace, poorly paid private-sector jobs and inadequate healthcare and education services—have left many citizens with limited opportunities and, in some cases, little awareness of how to demand better ecological governance.

 

In such circumstances, electorates often prioritise immediate material benefits and visible infrastructure over the less visible but equally essential task of conserving ecosystems. This dynamic has repeatedly brought to power leaders whose manifestos and political rhetoric promised rapid development but who have failed to translate those promises into accountable and sustainable governance.

 

The result is a vicious cycle: voters elect leaders who promise quick solutions; those leaders deliver visible projects that often come at the expense of the environment; and the resulting ecological decline further undermines livelihoods and the capacity of communities to demand accountability.

 

Political leaders, meanwhile, frequently resort to inflammatory and provocative speeches to divert public attention from their failures to fulfil electoral promises, discharge basic responsibilities and address issues of misgovernance and environmental degradation during their tenure.

 

Young people, confronted with limited employment opportunities and deteriorating public services, have little political bargaining power. Many are forced to take up informal, low-paid and precarious work, leaving them with little leverage to demand better governance.

 

In short, the people of Jammu and Kashmir are paying twice: first, through the degradation of the natural environment that once sustained their lives and livelihoods, and second, through leadership that has failed to protect these natural assets, generate and safeguard employment opportunities, and provide essential public services.

 

These include affordable electricity, clean drinking water, quality healthcare, safe and unadulterated food, and effective measures to reduce single-use plastics and the excessive use of agrochemicals in agricultural fields and orchards. They also include removing encroachments along riverbanks, floodplains and seasonal drainage channels, protecting forests from illegal occupation and preventing further destruction of the region's fragile ecology.

 

The list of these pressing concerns is long, and the responsibility to address them cannot be postponed indefinitely.

 

Political leaders must be held accountable not merely for the kilometres of roads constructed or the number of buildings inaugurated, but also for the environmental legacy of the projects they undertake. The Forest, Ecology and Environment Ministry must reclaim its role as the guardian of the region's natural landscapes by insisting on ecologically sensitive no-go zones, binding restoration commitments, transparent monitoring mechanisms and community participation in conservation efforts, rather than functioning primarily as a facilitator of clearances.

 

Citizens and civil society organisations must also reassert their voices by demanding transparency, strict enforcement of environmental laws and an electoral agenda that places long-term ecological resilience alongside immediate economic and social needs.

 

If governance in Jammu and Kashmir continues to prioritise short-term visibility over long-term sustainability, the region risks losing its most valuable natural capital: water, soil, forests and biodiversity—the very foundations of its livelihoods, cultural identity and ecological security.

 

The choice before voters and political leaders alike is stark: either tolerate the gradual destruction of an irreplaceable natural environment in the pursuit of short-term gains, or demand a different kind of politics—one that makes development inseparable from ecological responsibility and restores both the land and the public trust that sustains it.

 

 

 

The author is an environmental advocate and policy writer.