India, Aug. 4 -- On June 27, pictures of a river covered with logs in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district after a flash flood triggered angry reactions and fresh calls to save the Himalayas. The logs from forest areas such as Jiwa Khad almost clogged the flow to Pandoh Dam in the district. They underscored the devastation that Mandi and the neighbouring Kullu have faced over the past three years due to extreme rainfall and flash floods in narrow valleys along the Beas and its tributaries.

On July 9-10, 2023, heavy rainfall in Mandi damaged a national highway and submerged parts of Pandoh Bazar. In Thunag Bazar, the assembly constituency of former chief minister Jairam Thakur, flash floods with heavy boulders and logs damaged homes and kill...