Synopsis This work focuses on a strategic region extending from Jammu to Ramban in the Jammu & Kashmir state of India, and along country’s National Highway 1 A. The stretch of the Highway is the only route that links the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country and it has been a target of landslides and mass movement process since last about 100 years. Based on extensive field surveys and intensive laboratory work, the present study examines the interaction of lithology, structure, rainfall events and human interference that causes disasters in the study region. Besides making morphological and physico-chemical analysis of soils, it assesses the climatic water balance and infiltration capacity in different geo-ecological zones and describes them on the basis of geomorphic damages.