Condolences cannot replace accountability when repeated road accidents continue to claim lives on Kashmir’s routes
The death of two tourists in Pahalgam on Saturday is not just another accident to be mourned and forgotten after the customary official condolences. It is an indictment of a road safety system that repeatedly fails people and then hides behind sympathy. When a vehicle carrying tourists skids off the road and plunges into a gorge on one of Kashmir’s most frequented tourist routes, the issue is not confined to one driver, one machine, or one unfortunate moment. The issue is structural negligence. And that negligence has become far too familiar. Kashmir cannot go on selling its beauty to the country while leaving basic travel safety to chance. Pahalgam is a premier tourist destination, not an obscure and inaccessible outpost. If roads leading to such a high-profile destination remain vulnerable, poorly secured, and inadequately monitored, what does that say about the seriousness of governance? Every year, the administration celebrates rising tourist arrivals, promotes destinations, and speaks proudly of economic revival. But tourism cannot be measured only in numbers, hotel bookings, and photo opportunities. It must also be measured by how safely people can travel. The tragedy at Mandlan Aru should force uncomfortable questions that the government too often avoids. Were adequate crash barriers in place? Was the road properly engineered and maintained for growing traffic? Was the vehicle fit for the route? Was the driver sufficiently trained for hilly terrain? How quickly did emergency services respond? These are not routine technicalities to be buried in a police file. They are matters of life and death. What makes such incidents more disturbing is that they are rarely isolated. Jammu and Kashmir’s roads, especially in mountainous districts, have long been marked by dangerous bends, weak protective infrastructure, poor enforcement, and an alarmingly casual attitude towards passenger safety. The pattern is old, the risks are known, and yet the response remains reactive. Officials arrive with condolences after lives are lost, but where is the visible urgency before disaster strikes? Expressions of grief from the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister are appropriate, but governance is not a condolence message. Governance is prevention. Governance is enforcement. Governance is fixing the road before it kills, checking the vehicle before it fails, and regulating transport before tragedy becomes headline material. The deaths of Bawin Bhavsar and Awin Bhavsar should shame the system into action. Kashmir’s roads cannot remain corridors of avoidable death while the administration limits itself to sorrowful statements. If this tragedy does not trigger a serious overhaul of tourist transport safety and mountain road management, then official grief will ring hollow yet again.
