The Indian federal government has directed the setting up of a multi-sector team to study the reasons behind the recent cloudbursts and flash floods in Indian hill state Himachal Pradesh.
A news report in the English daily The Tribune said, “The multi-sector team will comprise experts from the National Disaster Management Authority, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and Indian Institute of Technology, Indore to look into the recent disasters in Himachal.”
Even the areas like Lahaul and Spiti district in the state, which receives little rainfall, are witnessing cloudbursts and flash floods. The entire state is witnessing a shift in agro-climatic zoning and an adverse impact on crops and fruits.
With almost a month and a half of the monsoon season still to go, the scenes from across the state present a distressing picture and at this pace, the trail of destruction can be far more serious by the time the rains recede. The state has already witnessed 24 cloudbursts, 42 flash floods and 26 landslides since 20 June 2025 when the monsoon arrived in the state.
The increasing incidents of natural disaster, especially in the past three years, are an indication that serious thinking is required to counterbalance the visible impacts of climate change, manifesting itself in the form of cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides. Besides the loss of human lives, the state’s economy suffers due to natural disasters as vital infrastructure like roads, bridges, water and electricity supply schemes get damaged and suffer losses of hundreds of millions of rupees.
The issue of hydroelectric projects adversely impacting the ecology of the local area has been in focus for the past one decade. The deforestation and denudation of vast tracts of forestland, be it for hydroelectric power generation, setting up of cement plants and road construction or road widening projects, have also put a question mark on the current development model.