Otherwise, the scenic village of Kalaban, near Jammu city, now lies in rubble and gravel, as if it experienced a massive earthquake. Beyond the rubble, there are hundreds of fallen and uprooted trees. With thousands of residents, the village sits at the Pir Panjal foothills. Following torrential rains this monsoon, there are cracks on the walls of houses and the concrete roads. Some of these cracks are large enough to fit a person. And, they are growing wider. The homes are no longer safe to stay in. There is no running water or reliable electricity.
Muhammad Arif’s (in his 40s), including his three brothers, homes and land are damaged. “My family lives in a tent provided by the government, surviving on food provided as relief. I have five kids, and none of them can go to school because it is closed,” said Arif.
People dragged their loved ones out of damaged graveyards. Mosques and schools have almost disappeared. A statistics textbook lies among the rubble of a collapsed house. Several schools have collapsed, and the uncertain situation has affected the education of many children in the village. Parents, in their make-shift tent, attempt to fill that gap in their child’s day-to-day learning.
Official records, however, report that 61 houses have been fully damaged, 18 have been severely damaged, and 44 have been partially damaged. And, around 123 families have been affected. There are no reported casualties.
Kalaban Crumbles Under Fragile Ground
The sinking began around 7th September, then the landslides followed till mid-September. Once a scenic hometown, in Poonch district, near the Line of Control (LoC), where Irfan Ahmed, 26, was born and brought up, Kalaban now looks like a ghost town to him. After his house walls developed cracks, his family relocated to his sister’s house. He still struggles to believe that something like this has happened. Though the horrifying visuals on-site can’t be overlooked.
“Ek basa hua gaaon achaanak se ujad gaya (An inhabited village suddenly became deserted),” Ahmed said. Many express, the only solution is rehabilitation and allotment of land.
The continuous rains in the first week of September seeped into the ground and made it prone to landslides. “The rock formation of the region is made of mudstone and sandstone, making it weak in nature,” Professor AS Jasrotia of Jammu University’s Geology department. Dr. GM Bhat, former head of the same department, said that the lithology (the general physical characteristics of rocks) of the region is very sensitive, and unplanned development, deforestation, and lack of drainage have only added to the calamity. “It’s nature’s response to the unsustainable development,” he added.
The locals also blame the road construction under the PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana), started in 2000. They believe that the construction was carried out in an unregulated manner, without properly surveying the fragile land and ecology of Kalaban.
A July 2024 study looked at disaster research in Jammu and Kashmir between 2010 and 2022. The study found a clear gap. About 71 percent of research has focused on Kashmir, while only 17 percent has looked at Jammu. This is despite Jammu being the winter capital and sitting on active tectonic faults.
The study warn that Jammu faces serious risks from earthquakes, floods, landslides, and extreme weather. The 2014 Tawi floods are one example. Fragile rock formations, deforestation, and unplanned construction make these risks worse. Yet Jammu remains poorly studied and poorly prepared. Even basic records are unreliable. Reports on the 2014 floods vary, with one source listing 277 deaths while the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report counted only 129. The lack of clear data and weak hazard mapping make it almost impossible to plan ahead.
The study also used a Deprivation Index to measure the gap between losses communities suffer and the aid they receive. It focused on three districts in Kashmir to show how support often falls short. Between 2013 and 2021, landslides killed 157 people in Jammu and Kashmir, out of 2,783 deaths recorded across India. Despite this, most responses still center on post-disaster relief rather than long-term planning. The study says the aid is also unevenly distributed.
Relief and Winters
Kalaban is a tribal dominated village, and the district it falls in is one of the country’s most backward. This socio-economic reality makes the community more vulnerable to the impact of such calamities. Take, for instance, 70-year-old Barfi Bi. She sat on one side of the road with her belongings, like a trunk, beddings, and utensils. Her husband worked as a labourer to build their house. The loss has traumatised him, so much so that he is bedridden. She alleged, “My son and grandsons were trying to get our belongings on 7th September when the police lathi-charged them.”
She showed her Aadhar card and broke down, “I have received nothing but a tarpaulin from the government. Hum khanabadosh ho gaye (We have become nomads).”
There are four relief camps: two of them are in nearby Panchayat Ghars–Aawa and Faizabad– and the other two in Gali Kalaban and Takiya Mod, said the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Mendhar Imran Rashid.
Abdul Hameed, 45, a shepherd by profession, and his family are rehabilitated in the nearby health centre. There are community langars to provide food. Hameed said, “Food and other resources can be arranged, but shelter is most important.”
Hameed also has 25 sheep and five buffalo with no place to keep them. A lot of people sold their livestock at half prices; “a buffalo worth a lakh was sold for fifty thousand rupees.” Hameed, like many, have traditionally depended on livestock for income. And with winters at the curve, and no shelter, he fears starvation for his family.
Under the SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) guidelines, Hameed is entitled to an immediate relief amount of 1.35 lakh rupees for his fully damaged house. Patwari (village accountant) enlisted him and assured relief. “But I have not received anything as of now. Due to some internal proxies, a lot of people like me have not received anything as of yet.”
Responding to the claims of gaps in the relief work, SDM Mendhar Imran Rashid said, “There have been no discrepancies in the relief work. People have received compensation based on the damage that unfolded over a period of time and how soon it was reported to the authorities.”
Antotaa – a colloquial word for people below the poverty line, “lost their kaccha houses, did not receive anything. There is a lot of delay in the monetary compensation,” Abdul Qayyam Qureshi, a retired government employee, alleged. “Moreover, there is a lack of ration supply, and the Tehsil Supply Officer (TSO) does not respond to us.”
Though TSO Mendhar Ayaz Ahmed said that there is no dearth of ration and each affected family got 50kg ration per ration card, while tents have 6-7 quintal ration. “NGOs also help the affected people with supplies. Sometimes, the registration and official paperwork delay the procedure, and unaffected people also use the ration. But we try our best to help the people,” he added.
Akhlaq Ahmed Chauhan, a lawyer by profession, said, “The state and central government should come together and provide the displaced people with proper accommodation that can house them and survive the upcoming winters.”
Relief Promised, Lessons Unlearned Again
Jammu & Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah visited the village on the 17th of September. He announced an extra ₹38 lakh. There was already ₹50 lakhs allocated under SDRF. He also allocated 5 marla (approx 272.25 sq feet) each to the affected families. He assured provisions of adequate shelter and facilities until permanent relocation.
A team of geologists from the University of Jammu and the University of Kashmir also accompanied him to survey the situation. The results from the geological survey are yet to be out.
Lal Muhammad, 65) Irfan’s father, a retired school teacher, remembers in 1988. “[We] witnessed similar landslides and floods. We lost half of our land and more property. The road subsided by around 20-25 metres. A check dam was built along the road. But that was the only measure that was taken as the authorities kept temporarily repairing the damage over the years. “If more check dams were built along the naala, perhaps this catastrophe would not have unfolded. We did not learn from our mistakes.”
Torrential rains and unregulated construction have triggered land subsidence in parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Affected areas include Samba, Kheri, and Tangar villages in Ramban. Four months ago, Kalaban was a safe spot. People took refuge during shelling from Pakistan in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. Though Kalaban is no longer safe for its own people to reside. They have been forced into a kind of exile by landslides and subsidence, a natural disaster triggered by human activity.
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