Flood Realities, Development Faults and Perceptions – Natural and Anthropogenic causes of 2014 Flood in Kashmir

Abstract The regularity of risk in modern societies permeates everyday life— from the air that we breathe, to the food that we eat, to the water we drink and to where we work and live. We live in a globalized world associated with risk societies which is caused by a myriad of global processes. These processes interact to produce an unforeseen dangers and endless array of risks. Kashmir being politically and ecologically fragile area needs a special understanding in terms of its physical and political geography. Kashmir suffered the worst flood in last 109 years in the year 2014. The present research analyses the disaster management in Jammu and Kashmir with special emphasis on causes of 2014 flood in Kashmir Valley. It digs deeper into the politics of urbanization and how the state has turned a blind eye to lake encroachment and land grab. The flood occurred due to the mismanagement of the resources and the faulty means of development. Increased level of urbanisation and its unplanned growth, and encroachment on the banks of Jhelum River proved to be detrimental to the environment and people. The other factors like deforestation, glacial melt and destruction of wetlands in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem particularly in the Western Himalayas, lack of proper disaster management plan in the valley, climate change, land grab, extensive catchment of Jhelum River, administrative laxity, lack of proper flood channel for Jhelum River etc. corroborated in the occurrence of the flood. The combination of these factors increased the vulnerability of the people to the 2014 flood in Kashmir Valley. Natural calamities are known to change politics, and floods are a great leveller. The political instability and unsettled conditions in Kashmir compound problems many times over.