Letter To Editor: The Himalayas Are Warning Us

For as long as Kashmiris can remember, the Himalayas have been more than mountains. They have been guardians. Their forests offered fuel and fodder, their glaciers fed our rivers and orchards, and their silence gave room for saints to meditate and for common villagers to find calm.

Our language and poetry often reach for them when we try to describe beauty, majesty, or refuge.

That image is breaking.

Every few months now, footage emerges of hillsides collapsing, rivers bursting their banks, and homes sinking into sludge. Dharali and Chishoti in Uttarakhand. Buner in northern Pakistan. Villages in Ganderbal and Shopian. One night of torrential rain can undo decades of a family's labour, sweeping away houses, schools, bridges, orchards. Families are buried in mud before rescue teams can even arrive. The Himalayas, once symbols of permanence, are behaving like loose rubble.

The science has a blunt explanation. Cloudbursts are increasing in frequency. Studies show that the Himalayan region records more of these deadly events each decade. Global warming has destabilized the water cycle. Glaciers are retreating faster than they can replenish. Deforestation has stripped slopes of their shield. Roads, tunnels, hydroelectric projects, and tourist infrastructure dig deeper into fragile terrain. What once absorbed and slowed rainfall now channels it into destruction.

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