Sangameshwar, July 26 -- Every monsoon, portions of a hill looming above Pedhe village near Chiplun come crashing down, into homes, fields and wells. The mudslides began after the hill was cut, to allow the highway to sail across the ghat. But as engineers cut through the slope without proper protection, the hill became unstable. Last year, a major landslide buried three homes, choked a well, and filled a canal with silt. The well is still unusable. The gram panchayat has sent repeated requests for help. "The mud is destroying homes and farmland here, every year," said Nishikant Mali, deputy sarpanch of Pedhe. "Even the road used for Ganapati visarjan is no longer usable since it's buried under layers of red silt." Villagers of Pedhe and Parshuram, the settlement on top of the hill, are also coping with the loss of a stepped path that once connected them. For centuries, the two villages shared religious and cultural ties. The steps, known as 'pakhadi', used to connect both villages, a 10-minute walk either way. These steps allowed Parshuram's children to attend school and residents to participate in festivals in Pedhe. The path was destroyed during the expansion of the highway. "Now, children travel 20 minutes by bus. Festivals are harder to celebrate together," says Mali....