Jammu & Kashmir is staring at an ecological collapse — and the signs are all around us. From choking air in Srinagar to vanishing wetlands, poisoned water bodies, cancer-linked waste dumps, and unchecked mining, the land once called paradise is fast becoming an urban and environmental nightmare.
Civil society has been raising the alarm for years. Ziraat Times has been consistently reporting on the decline. Now, some of J&K’s most respected civil society platforms — the Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC), the Environmental Policy Group (EPG) and Mission Ehsaas — have sounded a final warning. In separate meetings with the J&K Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Environment, GCC and EPG have called for urgent legislative and administrative action. Their message is simple: either act now or witness irreparable loss.
Their proposed measures are not radical. They are reasonable, science-backed and rooted in ground realities. GCC’s call for a Water Bodies Conservation Bill and a Climate Resilience and Glacier Protection Bill must be fast-tracked. Likewise, EPG’s detailed 20-point action plan — including catchment area treatment, proper flood spill channel restoration, scientific EIAs, and STPs for all urban settlements — needs to form the core of J&K’s environmental governance.
The facts are dire. Kashmir’s household vehicle ownership is now the third highest in India, choking its already narrow streets and polluting its fragile mountain air. Lakes like Dal, Wular and Anchar are dying under the weight of untreated sewage, encroachments, and plastic waste. The Achan dumping site is leaking toxins into the air and soil, with rising cases of respiratory illnesses, cancer and infertility in nearby areas. Illegal sand mining is destroying our rivers and aquifers. We are losing agricultural land faster than we can plant trees.
The government must act decisively. This includes enacting new laws, strictly enforcing existing ones and empowering pollution control and environmental monitoring bodies. There must be a complete stop to illegal constructions in ecologically sensitive zones and a shift toward vertical housing in urban areas to stop reckless land use. Investment in public transport, especially electric and CNG buses, must be prioritized. NGOs and community initiatives — like the Ehsaas-led revival of Khushalsar and Gilsar — should be supported and replicated.
The clock is ticking. Either we put environmental protection at the very top of J&K’s policy agenda — or we brace for a future where floods, droughts, disease and dislocation become the norm. The choice is ours.
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