Committee on Environment Demands Accountability, Climate Justice
FIRDOUS AHMAD
SRINAGAR, Aug 16: Expressing anguish over the devastating cloudburst in Chisoti Padder that has claimed several lives and left many missing, Chairman of the Committee on Environment in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, M.Y. Tarigami, has raised serious concerns about the fragile ecology of the Himalayan region and the government’s failure to take preventive measures despite repeated warnings.
Tarigami said the incident has once again laid bare the extreme vulnerability of Jammu and Kashmir’s mountains to natural calamities like flash floods, landslides, and avalanches, which are being intensified by climate change. He pointed out that the affected area is home to shrines where thousands of yatris and devotees gather every year, making it all the more necessary to adopt comprehensive safety measures to protect human lives. Questioning whether proper surveys or environmental assessments of such sensitive zones had ever been undertaken, he demanded immediate answers from the concerned departments.
Paying tribute to the heroic role of volunteers, youth, and local communities who rushed to the spot and displayed rare solidarity and communal harmony in rescue and relief efforts, Tarigami underscored the urgency of fixing responsibility. He called for a time-bound probe into why precautionary measures were ignored despite advance warnings from the Meteorological Department about severe rainfall and the possibility of cloudbursts in the region. “Why were alerts ignored and preventive steps not taken? This amounts to criminal negligence,” he remarked, adding that bureaucratic inertia and lack of concern cannot be allowed to go unpunished.
The Environment Committee stressed that such tragedies are not merely acts of nature but are aggravated by reckless exploitation of resources, deforestation, unregulated construction, and rampant use of stone crushers. “The working-class and marginalized communities of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be turned into sacrificial lambs at the altar of profit-driven environmental degradation,” Tarigami cautioned.
Referring to the alarming frequency of cloudbursts and extreme weather events across Pahalgam, Bandipora, Shangus and Ladakh, he said infrastructure and livelihoods have been repeatedly devastated. “The hills mourn, the birds wait in despair, the winds howl warnings, and the rivers weep—nature is screaming for justice. Yet, the ruling elites remain deaf to these cries,” he lamented.
Calling for systemic change, Tarigami argued that the way forward lies in mobilizing people against exploitative forces and building a new spirit of environmentalism. He said Jammu and Kashmir urgently needs climate reparations, ecological restoration and early warning mechanisms that truly reach every vulnerable community. “The winds warn us, the rivers cry out—this is not just a disaster, it is a clarion call for change,” he concluded, pledging that the Environment Committee will continue to demand accountability and immediate action in pursuit of climate justice.
