India, June 8 -- India's hill stations are speaking, though not in words. They are crying out through the thunder of landslides, the dry hiss of water shortages, the smoke of forest fires, and the slow, frightening groan of collapsing slopes. Mussoorie speaks through its cracking hillsides, Nainital through its suffocating lake, Joshimath through its sinking foundations, and Ooty through its burning Shola forests.

I have seen some of these warnings up close. During my years in the Nilgiris, I once watched a slope give way after a night of rain in one of the elephant corridors - not a dramatic landslide, just a quiet, unsettling slippage that told me the mountain had been pushed too far. That small incident taught me more about ecological...