Jammu and Kashmir is beginning to face a construction-material crisis at a time when demand for roads, bridges, housing, hospitals, schools, drainage systems and other infrastructure is rising. Restrictions on quarrying operations and curbs on the extraction, lifting and transportation of mining material have created difficulties for ongoing development works. The Government has valid reasons for tightening control over the extraction of sand, gravel, stone and other minor minerals. The region’s rivers, mountains and fragile ecosystems cannot be treated as unlimited sources of construction material. Yet the emerging shortage exposes a deeper problem: development needs and natural-resource management have not evolved together. Construction cannot continue without material and mining cannot continue without ecological limits. The challenge is therefore not to choose between development and the environment but to create a system in which both can coexist. What we are witnessing may only be the beginning. If the gap between demand and legally available material widens further, construction costs could rise, government projects could face delays, contractors could come under pressure and transportation costs could increase. Prolonged shortages could also create incentives for illegal extraction. The issue must therefore be seen not as a temporary supply disruption but as a warning about how Jammu and Kashmir plans and sustains its development.

There is no question that indiscriminate mining has consequences. Excessive extraction from riverbeds can alter river systems, disturb sediment transport and damage aquatic and riparian ecosystems. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s sustainable sand-mining framework recognises these risks and emphasises scientific assessment of extraction and replenishment. This principle should become central to Jammu and Kashmir’s mining policy. A blanket approach in which all extraction is either permitted or prohibited is unlikely to work. Some areas may be ecologically unsuitable for mining while others may support controlled extraction if scientific limits are respected. The region therefore needs regulated and transparent mining rather than unrestricted extraction or restrictions that make legitimate material unavailable. 

The present crisis also reflects how resources were used in the past. For decades, sand, gravel and stone were........

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