After cloudburst, 60 inhabitants of Solan village abandon houses

Sixty inhabitants of Katli village in Nand gram panchayat of Ramshehar had to abandon their houses after huge quantity of muck and big boulders flowed down from a hill above around 2 am last night following a cloudburst.

Villager Balwinder told The Tribune, “The saving grace was that the big boulders settled on the road above our village, giving us time to vacate our houses along with our cattle and families.”

The villagers are now demanding immediate removal of the big boulders so that their houses could be saved from potential damage.

Balwinder informed that they took refuge in a nearby temple and a ‘sarai’ at night. Few families managed to shift to their relatives’ houses about half a km away this morning.

Naib Tehsildar Raju, who visited the affected area, provided tarpaulin sheets to the villagers to protect their homes and promised to arrange community food from tomorrow. He said three to four big boulders which hung precariously above the village on a slope could potentially damage the houses if it rains further. Efforts would be made to remove those by controlled blasting.

Balwinder informed that the panchayat arranged food for the residents for today. The villagers attributed the severe land subsidence occurring in their area to massive forest fires which had remained ablaze for 15 days in 2020. “It destroyed a large chunk of the vegetation. The cloudburst which occurred last night eroded the land which was devoid of vegetation,” said Balwinder.

Panchayat pradhan Sapna requested the villagers to adhere to the safety guidelines and stay alert. She added that the panchayat was there to assist them.

Elsewhere in Nalagarh sub-division, a vital bridge on the Manpura-Davni- Dhella Thana Dharampur road was severally damaged after one of its span was washed away following heavy downpour this morning. Constructed in 2003, the bridge connected the industrial area of Davni and Thana to the Baddi-Nalagarh highway.

The executive engineer of Public Works Department attributed the loss to reckless unchecked mining going on in its foot which caused erosion of the structure in the rain, causing an estimated loss of Rs 50 lakh.