1100 PTI photo
The frightening visuals of vehicles being washed away in a flash flood triggered by a cloudburst in Dharamsala’s Bhagsunag area, and reports of several casualties following a massive landslide in the Boh valley, cannot merely be termed natural disasters. Much of the blame lies on the rampant human activity in areas be it water courses or forestland that were never meant to be fiddled with. In Bhagsu- nag, water breached the banks of the natural drain that had been encroached upon for building hotels and commercial spaces. How and why such constructions were allowed confounds logic. The mad race in the hills to not lose out on the opportunity that the tourist influx offers, and in the process break every law of the land, and nature is an assured recipe for disaster. If not today or tomorrow, then soon enough.