A view of the sound tunnel decorated ‘Z-morh’ that connects Gagangir and Sonamarg on the Srinagar-Leh highway in Ganderbal on Monday. | Photo credit: ANI
TThe ambitious government proposals to build roads and develop satellite municipalities in Jammu and Kashmir demographic and cultural.
In 2021, the Government approved a Semi-Anillo road project and acquired 900 acres of agricultural land cultivated for it. The district that is most affected by this project is Budgam, followed by pulwama, Srinagar, Ganderbal, Bandiporta and Baramulla. This mega project, aimed at reducing traffic in the Kashmir Valley, will be implemented in two phases. Farmers care about their livelihoods, since thousands of apples, plums and pears have already been eliminated to clean the land for the construction of the new road, which the locals fear will be used only for security and tourism purposes. The project will have numerous infrastructure elements, including 290 sewers, two roads on bridges, two high steps, 10 main crosses, 26 minor unions and a toll square at the crossroads of Narcases.
J & K is predominantly an agrarian economy. More than 80% of the population is directly or indirectly associated with agriculture. This massive acquisition of the Earth has exerted a tremendous pressure on the resources of the Earth of J&K, which has some of the smallest holdings in the country. The landowners were not adequately compensated for the loss of their land. This is due to the fact that they received compensation not under the right to fair compensation and transparency in the Land Acquisition Law, Rehabilitation and Rease, 2013, but under the Land Acquisition Law Jammu and Cashmir The statute books after the dilution of the dilution of the dilution of article 370. In the rural economy of J & K, the commercial agriculture of apples and its value chain is the pillar of the economy. This generates an estimated income of around ₹ 1.5 billion rupees. Transforming such fertile lands into construction sites will be disastrous for the economy of the region and will ruin the livelihoods of people’s Lakhs.
In May 2022, a notification under the Planning Law of the City of J&K, 1963, imposed a moratorium on land transactions less than 500 meters from the Ring of Ring. However, in October 2024, the Housing Board announced in a notification plan to establish 30 satellite municipalities along the Semi-Cing road. Each municipality will cover an average area of 200 hectares, which requires a total of 6,000 hectares, most of which are agricultural land. These settlements run the risk of displacing people and leaving marginal farmers without land as a significant portion of land has already been acquired and is expected to acquire more lands soon.
Since J & K became a territory of La Unión in 2019, there has been an impulse in development. The Government has proposed new projects or has given a filling to already commissioned projects, which have been languishing due to the shortage of funds. The unbridled progress of infrastructure development in the region is leading to ecological ruin and social displacement. While the government has promised better connectivity and economic progress, these projects attack in the heart of the fragile ecosystems of the region and hurt their agrarian backbone. The destruction of agricultural lands and orchards will strip the region of its biodiversity, will displace wildlife and erode its green coverage. Construction activities will accelerate soil erosion, which makes the land infertile and paralyzing agricultural production.
J & K is 14.3 Lakh of agricultural homes and an average property of only 0.25 hectares. It contributes to 80% of the temperate production of fruits of India. However, massive land acquisitions for infrastructure projects, often carried out without solid social impact evaluations, are dismantling these livelihoods.
Calamities such as 2014 floods have exposed the ecological fragility of the region. The blind search for urbanization and the relentless impulse to build roads, railways and satellite municipalities increases the risk of more disasters. This is not a progress: it is a slow and methodical unraveling of the ecological integrity of J & K and the livelihoods that depend on it. Without correction of urgent courses, the price of this so -called progress will be assumed by the coming generations.
Bilal Wagay teaches policy in Government Government College Beerwah, Jammu and Kashmir; And Ummar Jamal is an activist student and national president of the J&K Student Association
Published – February 4, 2025 12:22 am ist
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