Himachal’s recurring monsoon tragedy is a manmade disaster

A damaged vehicle after being swept away in flash floods due to cloudbursts, in Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (PTI Photo)

The monsoon havoc that the people of Himachal Pradesh are facing today, and have endured over the past four years, can at a macro level be traced back to three factors. An unchecked four-to-five-storey construction practice that began in the 1980s and 1990s. Add to it, the flawed development model of the Centre in this hill state gave a push for the exploitation of its rivers for hydropower projects, and constructing four-lane highways and tunnels to boost tourism proved to be the final nail in the coffin.

During this period, multi-storey buildings started coming up on fragile soil. Driven by greed, massive structures were erected indiscriminately by people even on steep 70-degree slopes, as well as in gorges and natural drainages.

Votebank politics

To preserve their respective votes, successive governments turned a blind eye, allowed rampant construction and in fact legalised it as well. Today, the consequences of those short-sighted measures are revealing their darker side.

As a result, natural drainage, streams and rivulets got diverted and re-surfaced elsewhere as unwanted water bodies. This disruption triggered waterlogging, flooding, soil erosion, and a rise in cases of landslides and landslips and deaths and destruction. The same structures built on fragile soil are collapsing like a pack of cards. For the past three monsoons and the present one, Himachal has been trapped in a recurring cycle of death and large-scale destruction.

More than 1,000 deaths in four years

In 2022, due to rain-related incidents, 244 people died, mostly in June to September. In 2023, the number of deaths reported was 330. In that year, there was also an unprecedented loss of property. The chief minister of Himachal Pradesh Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu had then estimated the total loss at about Rs 10,000 crore.

A year later in 2024, more than 400 people lost their lives due to the monsoon havoc and property worth Rs 400 crore was damaged. In the current year, even as the monsoon rains are on, 74 people have been killed due to rain-related incidents and property worth Rs 400 crore has been damaged.

The successive governments have always known the extent of the state's vulnerability to natural disasters. According to the Himachal Pradesh State Council for Environment, Science and Technology, disaster risk levels vary significantly across districts. Chamba, Kinnaur, Kullu, and parts of Kangra and Shimla fall into the 'very high' vulnerability zone. Districts like Una, Kangra, Mandi, Shimla, and Lahaul-Spiti are placed in the 'high' vulnerability zone, while Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Solan, and Sirmaur fall into the 'moderate' risk category. This zoning underscores the urgent need for tailored, district-level disaster preparedness and ecological planning strategies, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Enivronmental safety’s incompatible with political cycles

Dharamsala-based Romi Khosla, an architect and master-planner with UN-related experience aptly sums up the problem. He says: “Politicians are driven by the five-year cycle, while natural disasters can only be curbed by looking at a long-term solution, a minimum of 20-year cycle.”

Regarding Himachal, he says, there cannot be a single masterplan for the entire state. Due to the difference in the ecology and the topography, there should be a district-level plan. Also, the stress points in the topography have to be identified and roads, tunnels and any construction should not be allowed there.

Endorsing Khosla’s point of view is Tikender Singh Panwar, author of ‘Cities in Transition’ and an expert on urban transition. Panwar says, "Extreme weather events that took place once in a century are now occurring more frequently. These disasters are not random; they are a consequence of our unchecked greed and exploitation. The central government continues to push states to exploit natural resources often with complete disregard for ecological balance and topography. The indiscriminate expansion of roads into four-lane highways is further compounding the problem. This unbridled so-called development is leading us to destruction. If we do not take immediate corrective measures, let there be no doubt that this is just the beginning of a much larger crisis.”

Khosla adds, “The land in and around the Himalayas is highly porous as 16 rivers originate from these mountain ranges. If we fiddle even a bit with the topography that results in a slight change of course of the rivers we are inviting trouble.”

Awareness seeps in about the consequences of bad policy

Manshi Asher, a Himachal-based environmental justice activist, says that there is finally a growing recognition that the crisis unfolding in Himachal is not merely a natural disaster, but policy-induced and due to poor governance and lack of land use planning. She points to the settlement of communities—primarily along riverbanks—because of development policies and welfare infrastructures.

Decades later, these very communities are facing the consequences of unchecked development, dam construction and ecological disregard. Asher endorses Khosla’s view that mountain regions like Himachal Pradesh cannot be treated with the same broad-brush approach used in the plains while building houses, highways and railway projects. Instead, what the region urgently needs is a nuanced, participatory, location-specific approach—carefully considering where development should take place and where it must be strictly avoided.