Srinagar, Aug. 15 -- Roads were buried under mud and boulders. Homes were ripped apart. Over sixty lives were gone in hours that passed too fast to comprehend. Families sifted through rubble. Neighbours carried the injured. The hills that should have protected them had turned deadly.

Nature played its part, but human choices made it worse. Crowded trails, haphazard roads, and buildings on fragile slopes turned a sudden rainstorm into a deadly catastrophe.

Around the world, mountain regions dealing with similar hazards have proven there are ways to prevent this.

Japan treats landslides and debris flows as a constant challenge. Authorities build sediment-trapping "Sabo" dams, reinforce slopes with concrete, rock bolts, and vegetation, an...