Srinagar, July 21 -- By Mohammad Amin Mir

Kashmir faces floods that grow more destructive with each heavy downpour.

Government teams issue alerts, close schools, and mobilize responders whenever satellites spot intense rain.

But the waters still surge into homes, markets, and fields.

Technology delivers precise warnings, yet the disasters intensify because people have seized the rivers' space.

Encroachment on the Jhelum, its tributaries, streams, wetlands, and floodplains stands as the central driver that turns manageable rain into catastrophe.

Restoration of these waterways provides the only path to genuine safety.

A century ago, land records captured a valley where natural systems worked unhindered.

Rivers flowed in wide channel...