The unbridled infrastructural projects on the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir are taking a tremendous toll on the ecology of the region. The recent landslides in Ramban and cracks found in properties elsewhere are emblematic that nature is showing it has had enough and unless the ecological balance is taken into consideration such events will continue to happen.
Over the last more than ten years Ramban has seen massive infrastructure projects including construction of a four-laning project that connects Kashmir with the rest of the country, 1850 MW Sawalakote hydel power project, and Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Line (USBRL) project. The dynamite blasts and digging of the hills to build roads and rail networks is triggering a series of shocks in the mountains.
Even though both the rail network and the expansion of the highway are key infrastructure projects that can reshape the economy of the region. However, venturing into such projects without a deeper knowledge of the ecology, geography and topography of the region has the potential to be a downright loss-incurring activity. For the completion of these two projects, God forbid, we can have thousands of homes lost to landslides and other natural disasters. All these disasters can be bracketed as a man-made disaster while on the face of it they appear to be natural disasters.
It must be noted that more than half of the Jammu region including Reasi, Poonch, Rambam, Doda, and Kishtawar is classified as moderate to high-risk zones and these areas are more vulnerable to earthquake because of the centrally positioned Main Central Thrust and Udhampur Fault in the region. Even though the engineering teams working on the one of world’s highest railway bridges have conclusively proven that this bridge can sustain the effects of a 7 to 8 Richter scale earthquake. However, given the topography of the region all these assurances and estimates count to nothing.
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