Srinagar, April 10 -- One October morning last year, a yellow L&T excavator rolled into Kralwari village in central Kashmir's Budgam district and started tearing into the Doodh Ganga.

The machine worked with industrial efficiency, scooping out sand, gravel, and boulders, loading truck after truck.

Village residents watched in silence. They had seen this before. The Doodh Ganga, a trout-bearing stream that supplies drinking water to seven hundred thousand people in Srinagar, was being hollowed out again.

I happened to be in the area that day.

The District Mineral Officer had issued a short-term permit to a contractor, allowing this work to proceed. The officer either missed or ignored a Supreme Court judgment delivered seven months ear...