Kashmir Flood Risk 2025: EPG Submits Report to High Court, Calls for Urgent Action
By: Javid Amin | 07 September 2025
Remembering the 2014 Floods: A Tribute to Resilience
On September 8, 2025, the Environmental Policy Group (EPG) marked the 11th anniversary of the 2014 floods—a disaster that reshaped the physical and emotional landscape of Jammu & Kashmir. The floods submerged entire neighborhoods, destroyed infrastructure, and displaced hundreds of thousands.
EPG paid tribute to the brave youth and volunteers who risked their lives to rescue and shelter thousands. Their courage remains a symbol of Kashmir’s resilience, even as the region continues to face recurring flood threats.
“The people of Jammu & Kashmir deserve safety, not fear,” EPG stated, reaffirming its commitment to pursuing justice and reform through the courts and public advocacy.
The Legal Fight: EPG vs Union of India & Others
In the aftermath of the 2014 floods, EPG filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Division Bench of the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir. The petition named 16 departments of the Union and State Governments, demanding:
- Increased carrying capacity of the Jhelum River
- Restoration of wetlands and flood channels
- Scientific flood mitigation planning
- Transparent rehabilitation and compensation
The High Court issued multiple landmark orders, directing departments to act. Yet, over a decade later, many of those directives remain unimplemented or ignored, leaving the Valley dangerously exposed.
The 2025 Flood Scare: A Familiar Nightmare
Recent heavy rains in August and September 2025 triggered flood alerts across Kashmir, with the Jhelum River breaching danger levels at Sangam and Ram Munshi Bagh. Streets turned into rivers. Families evacuated low-lying homes. The trauma of 2014 resurfaced.
EPG has compiled ground reports from affected areas and will submit them to the High Court as part of its ongoing PIL. These reports highlight:
- Unrepaired embankments
- Clogged flood spill channels
- Outdated urban drainage systems
- Encroached wetlands and blocked natural buffers
Human-Induced Degradation: The Root of the Crisis
EPG’s report emphasizes that Kashmir’s flood vulnerability is not just natural—it’s man-made. Decades of environmental degradation have stripped the Valley of its ability to absorb rainfall.
Key Drivers of Degradation:
- Illegal tree felling in catchment areas
- Unregulated land use and construction on floodplains
- Overexploitation of forests for timber and development
- Bulldozing of mountains for road projects
- Deep riverbed mining using banned heavy machinery
These practices have transformed absorbent forest zones into concrete corridors, causing rainwater to rush directly into rivers, carrying topsoil and accelerating siltation.
The Bowl-Shaped Trap: Kashmir’s Topography
Kashmir’s geography compounds its flood risk. The Jhelum River descends from steep mountains into a flat basin, slowing its velocity and depositing sediment.
- Siltation reduces carrying capacity
- Wular Lake, once a vast flood absorption basin, has lost over 30% of its storage
- Tributaries like Lidder, Vishow, and Doodh Ganga now flush water rapidly into the Jhelum
Without intervention, this natural trap will continue to overflow.
Wetlands in Crisis: Losing Kashmir’s Natural Sponges
Wetlands once acted as natural flood moderators, absorbing excess water and releasing it gradually. Today, they are encroached, polluted, and shrinking.
Critical Wetlands Under Threat:
- Hokersar: Ramsar-recognized, now converted into residential and agricultural land
- Haigam & Shallabugh: Ramsar-notified, degraded by encroachment
- Mirgund: Heavily encroached
- Narakara Nambal: Reduced by construction and waste dumping
Instead of absorbing floods, these wetlands now amplify them.
Dredging: A Broken Promise
After 2014, dredging was initiated to clear the Jhelum. But it was abandoned halfway, without addressing the river’s hydraulic gradient.
EPG warns that:
- Dredging must be scientific and continuous
- It must be preceded by satellite surveys and sediment studies
- Dredged material must be disposed of responsibly
- Maintenance dredging must be a year-round process
Cosmetic dredging is not a solution—it’s a delay tactic.
Infrastructure Failures: From Spill Channels to Urban Drains
The historic flood spill channel of the Jhelum, designed to divert excess water from Srinagar, lies clogged and neglected.
Urban drainage systems are:
- Outdated
- Undersized
- Unmonitored
Even moderate rainfall turns Srinagar’s streets into rivers, flooding homes, shops, and hospitals.
Embankments breached in 2014 remain unrepaired, putting densely populated areas at constant risk.
What Needs to Be Done: EPG’s Recommendations
EPG’s report outlines a multi-pronged strategy for flood resilience:
✅ Scientific Dredging
- Use satellite mapping
- Identify critical stretches
- Dispose of silt ecologically
- Monitor progress transparently
✅ Wetland Restoration
- Ban construction on floodplains
- Reclaim encroached wetlands
- Launch eco-restoration projects
- Enforce Ramsar protections
✅ Infrastructure Overhaul
- Repair embankments
- Restore spill channels
- Upgrade urban drainage
- Build decentralized water retention systems
✅ Policy Reform
- Audit JTFRP and CFMP spending
- Create public dashboards
- Include civil society in planning
- Enforce accountability for delays
Expert Consultation & Upcoming Seminar
EPG will host a seminar of environmental experts, hydrologists, and urban planners to refine its recommendations. These will be submitted to the Government for urgent action.
The seminar will focus on:
- Flood modeling and prediction
- Community-based disaster response
- Sustainable land use planning
- Climate adaptation strategies
Editorial Takeaway: Safety Must Replace Silence
Kashmir’s flood risk is not just a technical issue—it’s a moral one. When governments delay, people suffer. When wetlands vanish, homes drown. When embankments break, lives are lost.
EPG’s report is not just a document—it’s a call to conscience.
“The administration must finally honour both the spirit and letter of the High Court’s directions,” EPG stated. “And respect the opinion of independent experts.”
Final Word: From Fear to Preparedness
The people of Jammu & Kashmir have endured enough. They’ve rebuilt homes, restarted businesses, and relived trauma every time the skies darken. Now, they deserve more than condolences. They deserve action.
EPG’s submission to the High Court is a step toward that action. But unless it’s matched by political will, scientific planning, and community participation, the Valley will remain vulnerable.
The next flood shouldn’t be a surprise. It should be prevented.
——————————————– Press Release ——————————————–
EPG prepares recent Flood Report for submission to the High Court Division Bench on 8th of September
The Environmental Policy Group (EPG) today paid heartfelt tribute to the resilience of the people of Jammu & Kashmir on the eleventh anniversary of the devastating 2014 floods, one of the worst natural disasters in the region’s recent history. The Group expressed its deepest condolences to families who lost their loved ones and saluted the courage of those who rebuilt their lives after the catastrophe, despite continued vulnerability to floods.
The EPG recalled that in the immediate aftermath of the floods, it had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled EPG vs Union of India & Others before the Division Bench of the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir. The petition named 16 departments of the Union Government and J&K Government as respondents and highlighted many matters related to prevention, mitigation and rehabilitation, sought judicial intervention to increase the carrying capacity of the Jhelum and conserve its associated water bodies.
The High Court passed a slew of pathbreaking orders, issued repeated directions to various departments, some of which were implemented. However, despite these judicial pronouncements, remedial measures have not been implemented in any meaningful manner.
The floods of September 2014 in Jammu & Kashmir caused unparalleled destruction, wiping out villages, bridges, hospitals, and critical infrastructure, while depositing massive amounts of silt and debris that further choked the Jhelum. In Jammu, too, floods wreaked havoc, damaging roads, homes, and farmlands. Yet, more than a decade later, the Jammu & Kashmir regions remain as vulnerable as they were in 2014, with no comprehensive long-term strategy in place to prevent a recurrence.
EPG stressed that the present vulnerability is not the result of natural forces alone, but the direct consequence of decades of human-induced degradation. The denudation of catchment areas through illegal tree felling, unregulated land use, and overexploitation of forests, bulldozing mountains to construct roads, deep river bed mining using forbidden heavy machinery instead of permitted manual process, has stripped the Valley of its natural capacity to absorb rainfall. The loss of forest cover, coupled with widespread encroachments on riverbanks and forest lands, has transformed critical catchments into built-up or agricultural zones that rapidly flush water into the Jhelum. Instead of gradual seepage and absorption, rainwater now rushes directly into the river, carrying topsoil and accelerating siltation of the riverbed.
The natural bowl-shaped topography of the Valley compounds this risk. As the Jhelum descends from steep mountain slopes into the flat basin of Kashmir, especially from Srinagar to Wular Lake, its velocity slows and sediment settles, progressively reducing the river’s carrying capacity. Wular Lake, historically a vast flood absorption basin, has lost nearly a third of its storage capacity due to siltation and encroachments.
Equally alarming is the steady shrinkage and degradation of wetlands that once acted as natural sponges. Hokersar, long known as the “Queen of Wetlands” and recognised under the Ramsar Convention, has been severely encroached upon and converted into residential and agricultural land. The Ramsar-notified Haigam & Shallabugh wetlands; the Mirgund wetland has been hugely encroached upon; the Narakara Nambal , once integral to the Valley’s hydrological safety net, has been reduced dramatically by encroachment, unabated construction by Government and private enterprise , and waste dumping. Instead of absorbing excess water and moderating floods, these wetlands are steadily losing their function, leaving the Valley without its natural buffers.
The EPG underlined that abject failure in increasing the carrying capacity of Jhelum, Flood Channels, wetlands has caused unspecified damage to life, property, agriculture, horticulture and businesses, besides causing trauma to the people of Jammu & Kashmir every time it rains for a day or two. The immediate task for the Government is to increase the carrying capacity of the Jhelum /Flood Channel & other water bodies. The process of shoddy dredging executed earlier should be done away with.EPG cautioned that dredging must be scientific and continuous, not piecemeal or cosmetic.. After the 2014 floods, dredging operations were initiated but abandoned halfway, without addressing the river’s natural hydraulic gradient. For dredging to be effective, it must be preceded by satellite-based surveys and sediment transport studies to identify critical stretches, while dredged material must be disposed of scientifically to avoid further ecological damage. Maintenance dredging must become a year-round process, supported by monitoring and transparent reporting.
Beyond dredging, EPG highlighted the urgent need for a holistic flood mitigation strategy. The historic flood spill channel of the Jhelum, which once carried excess waters away from Srinagar and other populated areas, lies clogged and neglected, even though its restoration is vital for flood safety. Urban drainage systems in Srinagar are outdated, unable to handle even moderate rainfall, often resulting in streets turning into rivers. Embankments along the Jhelum, many of which were weakened or breached in 2014, remain unrepaired or fragile, putting densely populated areas at constant risk .
EPG stressed that the protection of lives and livelihoods must take precedence over piecemeal works and unexplained delays. It reiterated that environmental degradation, unregulated construction, and administrative inaction have combined to increase the scale of risk, and unless decisive steps are taken, Kashmir will continue to face recurring flood scares.
EPG has been collecting the ground reports of the recent floods and will submit it to the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh early next week when the EPG PIL on Floods will be taken up for hearing by the Division Bench. It is worthwhile to mention the Hon’ble High Court had sought recommendations about the remediation of floods from EPG which it submitted to the High Court last month after consulting experts on Floods.
The EPG on the 11th Anniversary of the 2014 Floods, while paying tributes to the brave youth who, through their fearless and heroic acts, had rescued , saved and sheltered tens of thousands of people duringthe 2014 devastating floods. EPG reaffirms its commitment to pursuing the matter in court and the Government advocating for scientific, transparent, and community-driven solutions.. It said the people of Jammu & Kashmir deserve safety, not fear, and that the administration must finally honour both the spirit and letter of the High Court’s directions issued from time to time after 2014 and respect the opinion of independent experts.
Furthermore, EPG will conduct a seminar of experts and submitt the recommendations to the Government for necessary action.
Faiz Ahmed Bakshi
Convenor
