HP admits lags in efforts to tackle grave weather challenges in SC report

The Himachal Pradesh government has acknowledged “shortcomings” in its efforts to tackle the grave environmental challenges posed by cloudbursts and flash floods in a recent report filed before the Supreme Court, although it denied that hydroelectric (hydel) projects and dams were responsible for these.

- Abraham Thomas

However, it agreed to set up a core group of experts to identify these gaps and suggest a comprehensive road map within six months.

The state report came on suo motu proceedings initiated by the court on July 28 flagging increased pressure from tourism and development in the ecologically fragile state, which, it said, may result in the “entire state to vanish in thin air from the map of the country’.