Jhelum Floods Again

Exactly eleven years after the devastating floods of 2014, the Jhelum once again rose in fury, breaching its embankments and reclaiming its plains. At Zoonipora in Budgam, the embankment gave way in the dead of night, inundating villages and forcing the evacuation of nearly 9,000 residents. For those who lived through September 2014, the sight of water rushing into homes and markets felt like a cruel replay of history-an eerie reminder that Kashmir has learnt little from its past suffering. The geography of the valley makes it particularly vulnerable. Though nestled between mountains, Kashmir is a flat basin with poor natural drainage. The Jhelum, unlike mountain-fed rivers that descend rapidly, meanders sluggishly through the valley. At most places, it flows higher than the surrounding land, meaning even a small breach or overflow immediately floods habitations and fields. Within Srinagar, the river snakes through low-lying areas-TRC, Lal Chowk, Rajbagh, Zero Bridge, and Badami Bagh-leaving the city perpetually exposed to inundation.
Historically, Kashmir’s soil acted like a sponge, absorbing much of the rainfall, while the Jhelum remained a calm snow-fed river. But climate change, deforestation, and unregulated construction have altered this balance. Today, once-in-a-century floods arrive within a decade. Eleven years after the 2014 calamity, Kashmir faces yet another near-repeat of that nightmare. The warning signs were always there, but collective negligence-by state institutions, policymakers, and society at large-has turned seasonal rains into a recurring disaster. The causes are not difficult to trace. Rampant urbanisation has consumed flood channels, wetlands, and catchment areas. Srinagar once had a network of natural outlets to absorb excess water, but encroachment has choked them. The world-famous Dal, Nigeen, and Wullar lakes are shrinking each year due to siltation and human greed. The Nalamar channel, once a vital waterway to divert excess flows, now lies buried under concrete roads. Encroachments continue unabated despite repeated High Court orders, while floodplains are treated as real estate opportunities rather than protective buffers. Every monsoon, nature responds by reclaiming what was forcibly taken away.
The 2014 floods were supposed to be Kashmir’s wake-up call. Hundreds of crores were sanctioned for dredging the Jhelum, strengthening embankments, and restoring water bodies. Yet, on the ground, little seems to have changed. Dredging has been piecemeal and half-hearted, embankments remain weak, and wetlands continue to disappear. The Disaster Management Plans remain more of a paperwork exercise than a robust preparedness strategy. Eleven years on, the Jhelum breached again-proof that the promises of comprehensive flood management remain hollow.
The current crisis underscores the consequences of this inertia. Entire villages like Shalina, Rakh Shalina, and Baghi Shakirshah are underwater. In Srinagar, markets such as Gani Khan witnessed flooding due to poorly designed drainage. Farmers have seen their paddy fields and orchards submerged, with losses running into crores. The timing is especially cruel for apple growers, whose nearly ripe crops were destroyed. While the administration deserves credit for acting promptly-evacuating thousands, setting up relief centres, and mobilising SDRF and NDRF teams-the truth is that every evacuation is a reminder of our failure to prevent avoidable disasters.
The only silver lining is that weather forecasts indicate no major rainfall for the coming days, and water levels are receding. But depending on nature’s mercy is not a strategy. If anything, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events demands permanent, structural measures. The solutions are well-known: continuous dredging of the Jhelum, year-round strengthening of embankments, restoration of wetlands and flood channels, and strict action against encroachments. This requires more than token projects-it requires political will, institutional accountability, and public cooperation. It is also time to recognise that floods are not just a natural hazard but a developmental challenge. Every flood erodes people’s confidence, disrupts the tourist season, destroys crops, and pushes families into debt and poverty. The economic losses may be calculated in crores, but the psychological scars-of families fleeing in the night, of children watching their homes drown-cannot be measured.
Kashmir cannot afford another cycle of complacency. The 2014 disaster was declared “once in a century”, yet eleven years later, the Jhelum has reminded us that without preparation, the Valley is only a few heavy showers away from devastation. For too long, the people of Kashmir have been left to rely on faith and luck. What they need instead is a comprehensive, year-round flood management system that matches the scale of the threat. The administration must act, not merely react. Each year lost to inaction brings Kashmir closer to another flood-induced tragedy. The Jhelum has spoken again-will we finally listen?

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