I have spent years watching trucks loaded with sand and clay pull onto highways across Jammu & Kashmir, and I have spent those same years filing the cases meant to stop them. 

Today, I am writing this letter because local institutions have shown that they cannot, or will not, act.

This account draws largely on documents from my own litigation and the findings of a government committee.

Riverbed mining in Kashmir began generations ago with people using shovels and baskets, at a scale the land could handle. I watched that change roughly a decade ago, when hydraulic excavators like JCBs and LNTs replaced hand tools, and I watched it accelerate again once government infrastructure projects created demand contractors were eager to meet. 

Rivers such as the Rambiara, Sukhnag, Doodh Ganga, Romshi and Shali Ganga became mining sites, often without environmental clearance and sometimes even inside protected trout fish beats.

Mining continued during the monsoon, when riverbeds are most vulnerable and the risk of floods is highest. I raised these violations with the National Green Tribunal after the Flood Control Department, Mining Department and police in J&K failed to act.

I took the fight to court, and both the NGT and the Supreme Court issued rulings in my cases. 

The halt achieved in parts of Budgam district proves regulation works when someone enforces it. 

On August 22, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in my case, Raja Muzaffar Bhat vs Government........

© Kashmir Observer