Himalayas sending warnings, but we keep looking the other way
The Himalayan region in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand has been marketed as a space for tourism and hydropower expansion under the guise of development.
Updated At : 05:51 AM Aug 13, 2025 IST
Reactive: Rescue operation underway after recent flash floods in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. PTI
ON the night of August 11, 1997, a catastrophic cloudburst in the upper catchment of the Andhra Khad, near Chirgaon village at Rohru in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh, unleashed a deadly torrent of debris-laden floodwaters that swept through the narrow Himalayan valleys. Over 200 lives were lost, countless homes destroyed and public infrastructure decimated. The disaster wasn't just the result of extreme weather or an "act of God", it was the culmination of human negligence, ecological mismanagement, unsustainable human activity, a lack of preventive planning and policy failure.
