The Geography of Collapse

Highway expansion through the fragile Himalayas is tearing apart slopes and tipping the environment into crisis.

- Dr. Masoon A. Beig

Between the mountain towns of Banihal and Ramban in Jammu and Kashmir, the land is breaking apart. Boulders fall without warning. Slopes collapse. The National Highway-44, a lifeline that connects Jammu to Srinagar, is being expanded. But the cost of this four-lane upgrade is being paid by the mountains themselves.

This stretch of road lies in one of the most geologically fragile regions of the Himalayas. These are young mountains, still forming, still shifting. The slopes here are steep and made of loose rocks, clay, and shale. When disturbed, they do not hold. Cutting into them for road expansion upsets their natural balance and makes landslides more likely.

Climate change is adding fuel to the fire. The region is seeing more intense rainfall, sudden cloudbursts, and warmer temperatures. Rainwater quickly fills cracks in the soil, making slopes heavy and unstable. The cloudburst near Seri village in 2022 washed away an entire section of the highway in just minutes. Rising temperatures also break down rock through repeated freezing and thawing. These changes make an already risky terrain even more dangerous.