On a Sunday morning last month, Parveen Sharma observed the rushing Beas batter the walls of his three-story home in Kalath, close to Manali. Over the clamor of the river, he could hear the rumble of boulders. Just in time, the panicked cries of those gathering on a hill on the left bank broke the spell cast by the river.
The Beas swept away Sharma’s five vehicles and the green-roofed Riverside Cottage as he fled outside with his crew to safety. The river “changed my whole life in an instant,” recalls Sharma, adding that “it felt like the apocalypse.”
He had lived and worked at Riverside Cottage since 2014. He had picked the location in the hope that the natural beauty would entice visitors. He had never considered the Beas as having such devastating potential.
Nearly a month after the flood, he can only declare, “We never saw it coming,” as he mulls over his options.
The same issue is being debated by thousands of people in the Kullu and Mandi districts of Himachal Pradesh.
Sledgehammer strike
For two days further down the river valley, the destruction that started in the morning of July 9 at Manali and Kalath persisted. Homes, hotels, power lines, and water supply systems were destroyed.
At Bahang, Aalu Ground, Kalath, Patlikuhal, and Raison near Manali, the national highway vanished. Trucks and cars were thrown around as well.
On July 9, before morning, a Punjab Roadways bus with at least 11 passengers on board vanished in the flood near Aalu Ground. The adjoining Volvo service center’s other buses were also lost in the flood. About 35 houses in Bhuntar town were destroyed by the river. In the Kullu district alone, it was thought that around 40 people had perished.
The Pandoh dam on the Beas had to be opened by Sunday afternoon, drowning not only Pandoh village but also a portion of Mandi town downstream.
At Mandi, the old Panchvaktra temple was submerged. Between Kullu and Mandi, at least a dozen bridges over the Beas were severely damaged or destroyed. As water began to reach the powerhouse, workers at the Larji hydro plant fled for their lives.
The Tirthan and Sainj rivers were also in flood in Kullu’s Banjar valley. The Parbati-III hydro project’s dam unleashed water for a few seconds, instantly destroying the whole Sainj market and 88 homes. Numerous roads were damaged by the Parvati river, which also made its way into the Manikaran gurdwara. Numerous vehicles were observed floating away in the nearby town of Kasol.
The districts of Kullu and Mandi had no water, electricity, mobile service, or internet by Sunday evening. More than 70,000 tourists, including 687 foreign visitors, were left trapped in the Kullu, Banjar, and Parvati valleys due to the entire cutoff of the Kullu district.
image of destruction
After a month, the Beas has retreated, exposing the full scope of the damage. Where the highway originally went in front of the stores, it flows in Manali. “The river turned more than 100 meters to the right, changing its flow. According to Kunj Lal, a resident of Aalu Ground in Manali, “Another downpour could bring down many houses and hotels whose foundations it has shaken.” He also noted that the walls of his home have developed cracks.
At least 30 hotels in the area of Manali were damaged, according to Mukesh Thakur, head of the Manali Hoteliers’ Association (MHA): “The damages are enormous. The Beas wreaked tremendous damage from Manali to Mandi. Numerous people have been hurt.
Hemraj Verma is one of them. He was in Chandigarh when the Beas washed away his four-storey house in Bhuntar on July 10, taking all his family jewellery and important documents. “On July 9, I had asked my family to shift to a relative’s house although I never imagined the river would snatch my home.”
So far, 20 bodies have been found. Mangled vehicles lie half-buried in sand everywhere; torn buildings hang over a bed of rocks that the river left behind. The national highway between Manali and Kullu is not serviceable and it could take months to rebuild. For now, traffic between the two cities is moving on a temporary road on the left bank.
The Himachal state disaster management authority (SDMA) has estimated that around 2,200 houses and 428 shops were lost in Kullu district alone. The Kullu administration has pegged the loss of government property at Rs 780 crore.
According to estimates from the Himachal State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), the Kullu area alone lost almost 2,200 homes and 428 businesses. The loss of government property is said to have cost the Kullu administration Rs. 780 crore.
a catastrophe caused by humans
The last time there was a significant flood in the Kullu valley was in September 1995, when 65 people perished. Sunil Sharma, a local of Kullu who lost some of his plum orchard in the storm last month, claims that this flood was “much worse” than that one.
“This place has never been like this before. Even though it would pour incessantly for a week, neither the Beas nor its nullahs experienced any flooding. In recent years, Sharma says, landslides and flash floods have become more frequent throughout Himachal.
Climate activists claim that the state is experiencing natural disasters caused by humans. According to Guman Singh, convenor of the Himalaya Niti Abhiyan, a nonprofit devoted to preserving the mountains, “Kullu and Mandi have experienced floods before, but the loss is much more this time.”
He claims that while dams, mining, deforestation, and encroachments have all contributed to the increasing severity of floods, the main cause is the direct disposal of road building garbage into rivers.
Singh claims that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) enlarged the Kiratpur-Manali roadway in the least scientific way possible and, worse even, dumped all of the waste materials into the Beas.
Singh is supported by Sreedhar Ramamurthi, a geologist with the Delhi-based Environics Trust. According to him, adding silt and gravel to a river prevents it from flowing naturally and raises the water level. “The waters tend to flow sideways, and in the event of a flood, they first cut through the bank,” as a result. This is exactly what occurred when the Beas were flooded.
Ramamurthi claims that NHAI disregarded their requests to avoid disposing of road waste in rivers.
Floodgates opened after midnight
If the floodgates of the Pandoh and Sainj dams had been opened before they nearly overflowed, according to Singh, some damage would have been avoided.
“Despite warnings from the weather service, the dam’s administrators chose not to open the gates as the water level in the Sainj and Beas rivers climbed. At the last minute, they opened the gates, flooding the downstream area. The abrupt opening of gates caused Sainj market to be wiped away and much of Mandi town to be flooded.
Although Singh has called for an investigation to determine official accountability, Sainj villagers have complained to the police about the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), which manages the dams.
Anshul Bhatti, a resident of Sainj, claims that “Sainj suffered the biggest losses due to NHPC’s negligence,” adding that “when the floodgates of the Parbati-III project dam were finally opened, the water carried the muck that had been dumped outside the dam.” The Sainj flowed several feet above the danger level as a result.
