As hundreds of families in Sivasagar and Charaideo districts of upper Assam remain homeless due to the unprecedented floods that caused massive devastation last month, it is crucial for the government, both in Dispur and Delhi, to take serious action to identify the root cause(s) of this disaster. The flood has claimed at least ninety human lives in those districts to date. So far, at least ninety people have died in those districts as a result of the flood. Meanwhile, the government has estimated that the affected population is two lakh. Several individuals are still missing. A proper ground assessment of the overall damage – including individual houses and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, schools, colleges, and hospitals – has yet to be carried out. Also unavailable to date is the loss caused to the cultivators, poultry and piggery farmers, small tea growers, and all others whose different means of livelihood have been literally wiped out. Looking at both traditional news media and social media, one is convinced that this deluge is the result of a man-made disaster that has been silently gathering momentum in the upper reaches of the Towkok, Dikhow, Darika, Mitong, Namdang, Jhanji, and other rivers. All rivers flowing through Charaideo, Sivasagar, Jorhat and Golaghat districts originate inside Nagaland. According to reports, Nagaland has witnessed massive deforestation in the past twenty-five years. One report attributed to Global Nature Watch, an open AI-powered planetary intelligence platform developed by the World Resources Institute and other partner organisations, states that Nagaland lost 280,000 hectares of forest cover between 2001 and 2025. Experts claim that the data indicates a 21% decline in forest cover from the baseline year of 2000. It has also claimed that in Nagaland, over 37,000 hectares of humid primary forest vanished between 2002 and 2025. Reports quoting state officials, on the other hand, said Nagaland lost 794.88 square kilometres of forest cover between 2013 and 2023, according to the India State of Forest Report. Some unofficial reports also alleged that the hill state lost roughly 794.88 sq km of tree cover between 2013 and 2023. This loss has heavily impacted upon regional weather conditions and environmental problems across the state. Mon, Tuensang, Mokokchung, and Peren, on the other hand, are four districts that have accounted for about 57% of the total recorded tree cover loss in Nagaland in the past two decades or more. According to the Nagaland Pollution Control Board, the state, with a geographical area of 16,579 sq km, had 234 sq km of reserve forest and 8,623 sq km of unclassed forest in 2020, which includes all forests apart from reserved and protected ones. This area was 52.01% of the state’s total geographical area. The Nagaland Pollution Control Board has pointed out that traditional jhum or slash-and-burn farming, urban development (which involves a lot of digging for roads, buildings, and towns), and widespread illegal tree cutting are major causes of climate change and environmental issues in the state. Nagaland Pollution Control Board in a recent report titled ‘Study of coal mining areas in Nagaland and its impact on the environment’ on the other hand has highlighted that “unscientific coal mining severely harms water bodies, air quality and local forests.” Most mining operations are seasonal, managed by individual landowners, and lack proper environmental safeguards, it has said. Local newspapers published from the hill state say the Nagaland Pollution Control Board has also cautioned people and agencies involved in coal mining in the state about its impact on the land. The NPCB is on record cautioning that since strip mining severely alters the landscape and reduces the value of the natural environment in the surrounding land, it can lead to severe ecological disasters. As pointed out, strip mining, rat-hole mining and hill-cutting have destroyed large tracts of topsoil, thus permanently altering natural hill slopes. Landslides and sinking of hill slopes have become regular stories in Nagaland in recent times, and local media often report such disasters. Mine-owners dumping loose debris into nearby valleys and waterways contributed further to the ecological and environmental complications, with the Assam districts being compelled to bear the brunt of it. All these factors together are suspected to have led to serious ecological degradation, with heavy rainfall pulling the final trigger last month, which led to downstream catastrophic floods in Assam. Given this situation, it is appropriate to recommend that both the government of Assam and the Union government conduct a thorough investigation into the causes of the unprecedented flash floods that occurred in the upper Assam districts in July. The Nagaland government should also come out with a detailed inquiry report prepared by an independent agency on the July disaster it faced, apart from sharing all details with the government of Assam as well as the Centre. The July floods should be considered only a trailer of bigger disasters in the waiting.