How many more disasters will it take before Jammu and Kashmir calls this what it is: a climate emergency?

Fresh cloudbursts in the Chenab Valley, the rapid melting of the Amarnath ice lingam, mountains of untreated waste and relentless riverbed mining may seem like separate crises. 

But they are all part of the same story.

Rising temperatures, weak environmental governance and years of ecological damage have combined to push Kashmir’s natural systems to a dangerous point. 

Government agencies still treat these as isolated incidents instead of one environmental crisis demanding a coordinated response.

Chenab Valley has delivered the latest evidence. 

Last year’s cloudburst in Chisoti village in Kishtwar district killed more than 75 people. Another cloudburst has now struck the region, triggering flash floods and mudslides that damaged roads in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban. Transport along the Jammu-Doda-Kishtwar highway ground to a halt. 

Heavy rain pounded Tathri town during the night of July 6 and early July 7, sending mud, rocks and boulders crashing into homes, shops and parked vehicles around 3 a.m. 

Flash floods also damaged the 540-megawatt Kwar Hydroelectric Power Project, where debris buried vehicles inside the project premises. 

Good fortune prevented deaths this time, but physical destruction alone should push policymakers into action.

Events in Kashmir Valley paint the same alarming picture.

Heat surged during the past week, and the naturally formed ice lingam inside the Amarnath cave melted within days of the pilgrimage beginning on July 3. More........

© Kashmir Observer