Mindless concretisation behind Himachal's sorrow

It was already raining heavily on Monday morning when Ram Sharma opened his small grocery shop in Thunag market in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.

- Chetan Chauhan, Gaurav Bisht and Naresh K Thakur

Soon after, he received a call from a relative living in the upper hills of Thunag about a cloudburst; water was gushing down, he was told. Sharma yelled out a warning to others in the market, closed his shop, and rushed with his family to the first floor of the three-storey building.

They made it just in time. A torrent of water and mud and rocks, carrying tonnes of Deodar logs, came barrelling down the narrow market lane, demolishing all that stood in its way. Videos of the event went viral on social media, taking images of nature's fury to a national audience. Still recovering from the natural onslaught, 62-year-old Sharma said on Wednesday: "I have never seen such a thing in my life... I felt the water would consume me." He shared images of the sludge entering his shops. "Nothing remains," he said, as a pall of devastation gripped Thunag town.

Residents of Thunag said most of the logs were dumped in a local stream when a road was constructed to connect the villages during the tenure of former chief minister Jairam Thakur (2017-2022). Thakur's village, Thandi, is just uphill from Thunag town, the adminisative centre of the Seraj assembly segment, which saw unprecedented development works during his tenure. "Hundreds of illegally felled trees and muck was dumped in a seasonal stream.

We are bearing the brunt of so-called development," said a local resident, who was not willing to be named. Thakur, now in the Opposition, visited Thunag on Wednesday.