Odura, Shopian (J&K): Shahid Maqbool is not upset by how quickly hundreds of kanals of land were levelled to build an industrial estate along the banks of Rambiara river in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.What appears to have agitated this young man from Shopian’s Odura village is the ease with which government officials cited environmental concerns to diss the locals’ demand for a better playground for children.The approval for a new industrial estate was granted by the administrative council headed by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on February 23 last year. Photo: The WIre.“The village’s only playground falls in the course of the river and we were told that it was illegal to do any development work there. Yet now, a huge portion of the river has been plundered and flattened for the industrial estate. How is it justified?” asked Rashid, a postgraduate student, standing on the banks of Rambiara.For more than a year, heavy machinery and a fleet of dumpers have been at work to lay the foundation of a new industrial estate which is coming up on some 63 acres of state land on the riverbank of Rambiara in Shopian’s Trenz, a village of apple farmers.The State Industrial Development Corporation (SIDCO) which comes under J&K’s industries and commerce department is the nodal body for setting up the industrial estate. Photo: The Wire.The approval for the new estate was granted by the administrative council headed by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on February 23 last year.Although different laws and regulations make it mandatory for the government to obtain the approval of Halqa Majlis (Gram Sabha) for any development work or state land acquisition, locals alleged that the decision to build the estate was steamrolled without their consent.“The government talks about empowering grassroots democracy but we were not even consulted on this decision,” said Ghulam Mohammad Shah, who was sarpanch of the area when the government took over what activists allege is the buffer zone of Rambiara river.“Thousands of poplar, willow, acacia and apple trees were axed while the vegetable gardens which sustained some poor families of Naidgund village were flattened overnight,” said a local of Trenz, wishing to remain anonymous.The State Industrial Development Corporation (SIDCO) which comes under J&K’s industries and commerce department is the nodal body for setting up the industrial estate.Inside the estate, a maze of tarmac roads bordered by tiled paths, some of which are incomplete, has been laid out around rectangular and square-shaped plots of land marked out for upcoming buildings. Photo: The Wire.The Wire visited the site on Friday (December 5) to find some workers milling around heaps of sand and small stones besides a stone crusher plant that has been set up on the undulating, boulder-filled banks of Rambiara.Asked whether the SIDCO was permitted to operate the crusher plant, chairman of J&K Pollution Control Board Vasu Yadav told The Wire: “They have not applied for any permissions. We have deputed an officer for detailed inspection of the site”.Inside the estate, a maze of tarmac roads bordered by tiled paths, some of which are incomplete, has been laid out around rectangular and square-shaped plots of land marked out for upcoming buildings.Some 50 metres to the river, a dumper truck shook briefly as the bucket of an earthmover dropped a huge mound of soil, sand and boulders into its belly. Photo: The Wire.The unkempt, boulder-filled and parched ground of the plots resembles the ruins of an ancient river that would soon be buried under the mounds of clay and concrete.At one place, a trickle of glacial water continued to thread its way around boulders and concrete blocks; its soothing sound drowned by the wheeze of heavy machinery in the distance.Some 50 metres to the river, a dumper truck shook briefly as the bucket of an earthmover dropped a huge mound of soil, sand and boulders into its belly.“They are broken down into smaller aggregates depending on the requirement,” a labourer at the crusher plant who wished to remain anonymous said, as the loaded truck trundled out of the area.On December 3, the industrial estate, part of more than half dozen ‘land banks’ that have been identified by the local administration for setting up new industries in parts of Jammu and Kashmir post Article 370 revocation came under the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) scrutiny.In a notice to J&K government, the NGT observed that a petition against the estate, filed by Kashmir-based environment activist and writer Raja Muzafar Bhat raised “substantial issues relating to compliance of environmental norms”.Some of the low-lying villages like Shopian’s Trenz had a narrow escape in the 2014 J&K floods and locals fear that the upcoming industrial estate could make the next flood catastrophic. Photo: The Wire.Bhat told the court through his counsel that the estate violated the government’s own disaster management plan of 2019 that has marked out the site as a “buffer zone” of Rambiara, a major tributary of Jhelum river which is “highly prone to floods/flash floods” during heavy rainfall.He informed the court that the construction would choke the natural width of Rambiara and pose an existential threat to the villages of Dombwani, Nazimpora, Odura and Sheikhpora across the river.Some of these low-lying villages had a narrow escape in the 2014 J&K floods and locals, who depend on their agriculture farms and apple orchards for sustenance, fear that the upcoming industrial estate could make the next flood catastrophic.“The 2014 flood washed away part of a local graveyard, but thankfully the living were spared. The new industrial estate has put our future at risk,” said Khursheed Ahmad, a Nazimpora village resident.The National Water Policy 2012 requires that “a portion of river flows should be kept aside” in order to “meet ecological needs” of the river and “ensuring that the proportional low and high flow releases correspond in time closely to the natural flow regime”.Appearing for Bhat, advocate Saurabh Sharma argued that the estate had violated the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution along with Articles 48 and 51 besides a slew of orders passed by the Supreme Court, Delhi high court and the NGT for safeguarding the environment.Article 48A of the constitution makes it obligatory for the government to “protect and improve the environment of the country” while Article 51A (g) includes protection and improvement of the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife” in the charter of duties of citizens.Also read: We Dimmed the Dark. Now Lights Disrupt Nature.Bhat also argued in his petition that the new estate would change the river’s natural course in case of a flood which will endanger human habitations, agriculture fields and apple orchards downstream in other parts of Shopian and Pulwama districts also.“The shrinking river has become a ticking time bomb, and when it explodes in the form of uncontrolled flood waters, the poor and helpless will be the ones to suffer. By narrowing its course with concrete and steel, the SIDCO is inviting disaster, and when that disaster strikes, it would be the local community members and poor agriculturist families on the left bank who will suffer the most,” Bhat told the court.The green court was also informed that allowing the new estate would also cause pollution as “untreated sewage and industrial effluents” would end up getting dumped “directly into the river”.Sharma told The Wire that under the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, ‘Consent to Establish’ and ‘Consent to Operate’ certificates from the state pollution control board are mandatory for setting up of industries which involve the discharge of sewage or trade effluent into water bodies.After hearing Sharma, the green court issued notices to the Union government and J&K administration officials to respond to the allegations while listing the case on February 24, 2026.