The monsoon has a way of reminding us how closely our lives are tied to the landscape around us. For a hill town like Mokokchung, heavy rain is not merely a weather event. It can bring landslides, soil erosion, collapsing retaining walls and other hazards that can threaten homes, roads and livelihoods.
We cannot wish away the hills, nor can we wish away the monsoon. Landslides will remain a natural hazard. But whether every natural hazard has to become a human tragedy is a different question. That is where preparedness, responsibility and community vigilance matter.
The question, therefore, is not whether disasters can be completely prevented. They cannot. The question is whether we are doing enough to ensure that a natural hazard does not become a preventable human tragedy.
That responsibility cannot rest entirely on the Government. The Government must strengthen disaster response, enforce construction standards, improve drainage, maintain reliable emergency systems and identify high-risk areas. These are duties, not favours.
But a safe community cannot be built by government machinery alone. We must stop thinking of disaster preparedness as something that begins when the siren sounds. It begins much earlier, with a resident noticing a dangerous retaining wall, a ward identifying a vulnerable slope, a homeowner keeping drainage clear, or a neighbour warning a family living in an unsafe location.
Every citizen is a stakeholder because every citizen is potentially a victim.
We should not wait for disaster before asking whether a particular slope was known to be dangerous, whether a wall was properly built, or whether an evacuation could have happened earlier. Such questions are most useful when asked before tragedy, not after it.
The hills are our home. We cannot flatten them, stop the rain or eliminate every risk. But we can choose to live more consciously within this landscape.
The monsoon will pass, but the hills will remain. The risks will remain too. If we accept that reality and work together, disaster need not always become the price we pay for living in the hills.
The greatest lesson is not fear. It is responsibility. And responsibility must belong to all of us.