Roads, Regions and the Weight of Geography
I was scheduled to present a paper in New Zealand on 3–4 February titled “Statistical and Numerical Models for Landslide Susceptibility along the National Highway in Jammu & Kashmir, India, and Its Political and Economic Impacts.” Owing to the ongoing Budget Session, I was unable to travel despite all arrangements being in place. The present series of articles distils the core technical analysis and abstract of that work into accessible write-ups aimed at informing the public and guiding planners and technocrats on the vulnerability, socio-political consequences, and mitigation of recurrent landslides that frequently disrupt this critical corridor.
Connectivity has always carried a political meaning in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Roads here were not simply instruments of movement; they were markers of access, authority and reassurance. From the earliest cart tracks to modern highways, the region’s transport history reflects the tension between geography and governance, between terrain and political imagination.
Historically, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh evolved as geographically and politically distinct regions. Jammu’s relatively stable terrain allowed earlier road penetration during the Dogra period, facilitating administrative consolidation and trade. Kashmir Valley, despite its centrality, remained seasonally vulnerable, dependent on passes that closed for months. Ladakh, perched on the trans-Himalayan plateau, remained the most isolated—linked tenuously through routes that were functional only in limited windows. These inherited distinctions did not disappear with modern state-building; they were merely overlaid with new administrative frameworks.
The construction of the Banihal Cart Road in the early twentieth century marked a turning point for the Valley, reducing—but not eliminating—its dependence on weather-bound routes. Post-Independence, the Jammu–Srinagar highway became the Valley’s primary lifeline, investing the road with symbolic and material significance. Any disruption quickly translated into economic stress, administrative anxiety and political unease. The Srinagar–Leh axis, meanwhile, remained an even more fragile corridor, open for barely half the year and exposed to extreme climatic volatility.
These inherited distinctions continue to shape contemporary political anxieties, particularly when recurrent connectivity failures revive older questions of regional neglect, administrative distance and uneven development. Roads thus function as reminders of historical hierarchies that infrastructure alone has never fully resolved.
From an engineering and environmental standpoint, road development in this region has always confronted the limits imposed by a young Himalayan geology. Most routes cut across unstable lithological formations where slope equilibrium is delicately balanced. Studies using slope-stability models indicate that increased pore-water pressure—caused by rainfall, snowmelt or subsurface seepage—significantly reduces shear strength in exposed slopes. Where drainage is inadequate and cut slopes remain unsupported, even moderate precipitation can trigger landslides. In such settings, roads do not merely traverse fragile terrain; they actively reconfigure it.
Hydrological factors play a decisive role along both the Jammu–Srinagar and Srinagar–Leh routes. Changing precipitation patterns, rapid snowmelt and blocked natural drainage channels have intensified slope saturation. Scientific assessments using rainfall-threshold models increasingly point to a narrowing margin of safety, where disruption becomes not exceptional but expected. This makes connectivity less a matter of emergency response and more a question of long-term planning.
Yet the political discourse around roads often remains reactive. Closures are treated as episodic failures rather than structural outcomes of terrain, climate and design choices. Temporary fixes restore traffic, but rarely address the cumulative stresses embedded in the landscape. Over time, this cycle erodes public confidence, reinforcing perceptions that connectivity remains provisional rather than assured.
A sustainable response lies in acknowledging geography as a governing variable, not an inconvenience. Preventive slope management, scientific drainage design and region-specific engineering standards must move from advisory documents to operational priorities. In a region where roads shape economic rhythms and political mood alike, reliability is not a luxury—it is a condition of stability.
Dr S Bashir Ahmad Veeri is a serving legislator from Bijbehara and contributes occasionally to GK Op-ed pages in larger public interest.
