Rising incidents of landslides in Northeastern states during monsoon are severely disrupting the movement of passengers and goods underscoring the needs for Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification & Maintenance) Policy-2015 in this fragile ecological region. The landslide mitigation in the region continues to be reactive and patch up work of temporary restoration rather than sustained preventive intervention. Indiscriminate uprooting of trees and rampant cutting of hill slopes have already aggravated already landslide-prone areas making the national highways and other roads even more vulnerable to slope failures. This calls for prioritising integration of Green Highways into project design, as emphasised in the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementation of the policy and ensuring that project developers strictly adhere to such design during construction. The SOP reminds the stakeholders in highway construction that removal of trees is one of the necessary evils in the process of development of highways but it is obligatory to offset the loss by way of planting trees at all feasible locations along the highways. It rightly insists that highways should not be looked upon merely as means of transportation, but an integral part and parcel of the physical environment and socio-economic milieu. The insistence in the SOP that roadside plantations and median plantation should not be considered as externalities but an integral part of the highway project establishes the foundational aspects and conceptual framework of Green Highway approach. A worrying trend along stretches of national highways in Assam is unchecked growth of thick shrubs on medians obstructing visibility and cause pedestrians to suddenly emerge from behind the vegetation leaving no scope for drivers to manoeuvre, and often resulting in fatal crashes. It also reminds the importance of ensuring survival of the saplings, through regular maintenance and tending which requires the entire process planting and maintaining trees along highways to remain robust through the project period and beyond. The SOP mandates that the National Highway Authority of India would take up plantation with its own fund, wherever the plantation is found inadequate, in case the plantation cost is not included in the project. It is essential that only those tree species suited to local ecosystem in the area are planted so that no invasive species are introduced which may be ecologically disruptive. When tree cover along the highway, especially in hilly areas of the region, is removed indiscriminately, the exposed top soil is left vulnerable to heavy and incessant rain. As this leads to loosening of the soil due to seeps in, weakening slope stability and triggering landslides. Ironically, this elementary understanding of slope ecology is often lost in the rush to build and expand highways to push connectivity in the region grappling with poor connectivity for long. Even the communities living along these highway alignments seldom remind the highway authorities or the contractors about this basic ecological wisdom as their hopes for new opportunities facilitated by faster movement often overshadows the need for preventive safeguards. They start noticing the gaps in long-term stability in improved road connectivity when slope failures trigger recurring landslides cutting the lifelines often for days together. Building awareness among the communities to hold highway construction agency and contractors accountable is a must when they are found deviating from Green Highway construction norm. Frequent landslide-induced traffic disruptions in the region reveal the flaws in planning and execution. As the region’s high vulnerability to landslide risks is known to the NHAI and other construction agencies, it demands that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways identify the critical gaps and strengthen safeguards against such preventable risks. Apart from cutting off the supply lines, disruption of traffic due to landslides aggravates the security risks in strategically located region as it also affects troop movement to strategic and forward areas. Timely vigilance by Northeastern states – and swift escalation of the critical and persistent gaps to the central government can substantially improve the region’s highway oversight and ecological safeguards. Ironically, lessons are not learnt and recurrence of such failures continues year after year. The fact that more than a decade has elapsed since the Green Highways policy was adopted, yet the key mandate remains unimplemented while highway projects have led to massive tree felling in the ecologically fragile region. Unless the troubling gap of policy and implementation, intent and action is not bridged, the region is not likely to achieve safer, ecologically stable highway or reduce its landslide vulnerability. Ensuring landslide risk mitigation in the region requires linking mitigation measures to ecological protection during highway construction or expansion. For Northeast’s fragile terrain and ecology, the Green Highways are not a matter of choice but are the only viable option for sustainable growth in its connectivity. Prevention of landslide risks along highways must be a top priority for monsoon preparedness.