Srinagar, Feb. 9 -- When the proposal for a railway line to Pahalgam was first floated, it did not initially trigger ecological alarm bells. Kashmir had lived through far worse assaults on its environment - rivers reduced to drains, wetlands eaten away parcel by parcel, garbage dumped in floodplains, forests quietly surrendered to resorts and parking lots. None of these had ever provoked sustained political outrage.

But the railway did.

Almost overnight, Kashmiri netas discovered a deep and sudden concern for ecology. Press statements followed. Objections multiplied. Environmental arguments were rehearsed with unusual urgency. The same political class that had remained unmoved by drying rivers and choking lakes now spoke of "fragile eco...