Being an eco-fragile region, Jammu and Kashmir needs sustainable development to protect its water bodies, forests, mountains and glaciers. However, haphazard construction activities including road projects in fragile areas are taking a heavy toll on the environment.

There has been a massive outcry over the proposal to allocate 5000 kanals of productive land spreading eight villages in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district for construction of the National Institute of Technology (NIT).

The farmers and orchardists of Newa hamlet have been opposing setting up of a new NIT campus saying the project will bury their apple and almond orchards and hit their livelihood. The project will spell doom to the fragile eco-system in these villages.

Rising to these concerns, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah minced no words to say that if need be, the government will explore alternative locations for setting up NIT. “Development should align with local needs and sustainable practices. If people of Pulwama are opposing the project, we would identify non-productive lands and shift the proposed NIT to a more suitable location,” Omar said.

However, the CM maintained that “we cannot halt development. Development must go hand in hand with addressing those concerns. We will try our best to ensure that land for roads or railways is non-productive.” In the last over two........

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