Jammu Kashmir HC Raps Admin Over Flood Mismanagement, Seeks ATR in 3 Weeks

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has pulled up the administration over its handling of the Valley’s flood vulnerability, directing the Government to file a detailed Action Taken Report (ATR) within three weeks on measures to address ecological degradation and flood risks.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal on Wednesday heard extensive arguments in Environmental Policy Group (EPG) v. Union of India & Others (PIL No. 8 of 2017), a case that has repeatedly flagged Kashmir’s fragile flood management system.

The Court expressed serious concern over the state of the Flood Spill Channel — the Valley’s main safeguard against inundation. Amicus Curiae Advocate Nadeem Qadri submitted pictorial evidence showing encroachments and mismanagement, which the Bench described as alarming. Chief Justice Palli voiced particular anguish that portions of the channel had been converted into football fields, terming it a “shocking example of administrative negligence.”

The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, appeared virtually during the hearing. The Court directed the Government to submit an ATR both on the Amicus Curiae’s recommendations and on a comprehensive report filed by EPG Convenor Faiz Bakshi on September 8. The report, based on field observations, underscored the recurring flood scare and what it called the authorities’ inability to frame a credible flood management plan.

Advocate Shafqat Nazir, representing the EPG, also highlighted what he described as serious non-compliance with several earlier orders of the Bench, urging the Court to ensure accountability.

Bakshi’s report painted a grim picture of the administration’s preparedness. “The government is clueless on the way forward. Those competent and qualified to decide the future course of action are neither empowered nor listened to, while those who are empowered but not qualified are not inclined to act,” he wrote.

The report urged the imposition of a moratorium on land allotments, transfers, or construction within 500 metres of wetlands, warning that encroachments were choking natural flood basins. It cited projects such as Rakh Arth, Transworld University, and IIM Srinagar as aggravating flood risks and called for their immediate halt.

Underscoring lessons from the devastating September 2014 floods, the EPG stressed that wetland and flood basin conservation was critical to Kashmir’s security. It recommended the creation of small storage reservoirs in each basin and sub-basin to moderate water flow, integrated with solar-based hybrid pumped storage systems. “Therein lies the answer to our two main woes — flood and power — in that order,” Bakshi argued.

With the Court granting three weeks for compliance, the Government now faces pressure to demonstrate concrete preventive and remedial measures before the matter is listed again.