Building on the Ridges

Parashar Lake, situated in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, is both breathtakingly beautiful and geologically unstable. The Himalayas are young mountains still rising, resulting in their slopes being naturally unstable and prone to erosion and landslides.

Near Parashar Lake, the land itself has been sinking slowly  for some years, a fact locals know all too well. After every intense monsoon rain, trees tilt at an odd angle, and new cracks appear in the soil and roads.

Through this photo essay, I aim to capture an everyday situation in the region which is marked by huge earth movers. These machines excavate the area and are incessantly oriented towards rebuilding the place, changing its entire landscape. Here, an orange JCB (an excavator) can be seen carving a road along a snow-covered Himalayan ridge. The picture captures a bright machine against the old white snow, a brown scar that cuts through the mountain. What initially appears as a sign of development, a road connecting a remote area, quickly becomes more threatening. At a distance of around 300 meters lies Prashar Lake, bordered by the scars of development. The picture draws us in but also poses uneasy questions like, “What price is being paid for this ‘development,’ and will these ridges hold what we are building on them?”

The land here in Prashar is sinking and sliding slowly, a dangerous instability that is intensified by anthropogenic interventions. Residents living in the surroundings of Parashar Lake have reported visible cracks in their fields and courtyards after heavy rains (“Growing Landslides”, 2025). This region is already fragile, and over that, the rumbling sound of an excavator adds to the strain. This image of a lone excavator on a crumbling mountain thus overshadows a cycle of build-up and breakdown.

Road construction in these mountainous areas can be a nefarious agreement. In order to build a flat roadway on a steep slope, practices like blasting or excavating the hillside are often carried out, ripping off the vegetation and even the very braces that hold the mountain intact. In Himachal Pradesh such “unscientific” slope-cutting practices have become alarmingly common. Research shows that road construction is often a primary reason contributing to destabilizing slopes. A recent study in the Mandi district found that the region is highly landslide-prone, increased by 3-4% due to road construction activities (Sharma & Prakash 2023). 

A very similar slow disaster is occurring in other parts of Mandi district. In the Jogindernagar subdivision, approximately 20 families in Bagla and Pohl villages are witnessing the terrain gradually deteriorate a little more each year. About 20 families in the villages of Bagla and Pohl in the Jogindernagar subdivision have observed the terrain progressively getting worse every year.  Land subsidence and landslides have become a common thing, particularly during the monsoon season. According to the villagers, the root cause is a new road carved through their area by the PWD (Public Works Department). The unscientific road excavation left the slopes unstable, no proper drainage was provided, and the promised retaining walls were never built. (3). Sadly, such stories are becoming common across the Himalayas. The Supreme Court of India has recently warned that the fragile ecology of mountain states like Himachal Pradesh is "collapsing under the weight" of unchecked development (Mishra 2025). Decades of tunnel excavation, river damming, and reckless road construction have destabilized slopes and increased the frequency of natural disasters.

In the years 2023 and 2025, torrential monsoon rains triggered numerous cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides in Mandi and neighboring districts, intensified by poorly planned infrastructure, as can be seen from the above pictures.  The continuous land subsidence near Parashar Lake is causing a huge amount of debris flow downstream, endangering the nearby villages. In such a vulnerable and fragile environment, the image of a JCB excavator cutting through an untouched slope along a snow-covered ridge is highly concerning. It raises a critical question: are we constructing a road to connectivity or to disaster?

This particular image here shows a pattern of cracks spreading across the land, indicating that the land is gradually sinking downhill. In the Parashar Lake area, local residents have expressed concern as entire patches of forest have started to slide. It is reported that over 1600 trees have slipped already. For the families living below, these developments are deeply concerning. People fear that if the land continues to sink, even a moderate rainstorm can trigger major landslides in the area. Their concerns are supported by recent climatic events- in August 2023 a flash flood in Bagi Nala stream, worsened by the landslide debris, destroyed a newly built bridge, damaged a school, washed away large areas of farmlands downstream, and claimed 6 human lives. The only road connecting Parashar Lake to the nearest town, Mandi, was also disrupted for weeks, limiting the access to the area. These incidents carry substantial consequences, affecting livelihoods, mobility, and overall community resilience.

Why then are roads being bulldozed in such ecologically fragile areas? The stated justification is to improve connectivity, to link remote villages, and to promote tourism in places like Parashar Lake. While better roads can certainly improve access to healthcare, education, and markets in the mountain regions, but when infrastructure is built without considering the regions' ecology and geology, it can backfire badly. In many cases people who were meant to benefit end up paying the high cost. Construction practices often overlook environmental considerations as a result, the infrastructure built is neither safe nor durable- roads that crumble within a season or exacerbate the very isolation they were meant to solve. The photographs urge us to reflect on the true meaning of progress in a land quite as dangerous as it is essential as the Himalayas. Development can’t happen at the cost of ecological degradation, in the end, such development is just an illusory promise. 

These stories of rebuilding and reorienting the entire himalayan landscape narrate a compelling issue of risk and recklessness in the Himalayas. Mountainous regions are both ecologically rich and culturally significant, yet terribly unstable. They give life to millions but can also take life away in an instant when destroyed.  For decades, the development paradigm here has ignored the mountains’ limits, the dams and tourism projects imposed without sufficient foresight, which results in recurring disasters. But this crisis situation offers the opportunity for risk-informed and ecologically grounded decisions. Even though scientists, courts, and local people are advocating for more responsible development, the primary gap lies in the enforcement and implementation. The scientific warnings and court directions often remain on papers while the ground-level development still continues under fragmented governance, economic interests, and tourism-driven demand. Often the environmental assessments are bypassed or diluted, and accountability for unsafe construction is still lacking. The frequent built-up processes witnessed around Parashar lake in Himachal Pradesh is a glimpse into the future which is unfamiliar and devastating. In the mountain regions of India, the earth movers have emerged as a symbol of breaking and building, transforming the entire construction processes. 

Addressing this gap needs robust enforcement of environmental regulations. Instead of constructing highways, enhancing existing routes and utilizing sustainable transportation may effectively attract visitors while preserving the tranquility of the highlands. Rather than building mega-dams that pose a risk of landslides, micro-hydel projects and solar grids could deliver energy with a low environmental impact. In the absence of structural reforms, mere awareness will not avert the recurrence of hazardous and unsustainable development patterns. These images are not just documentation, they are warnings. Ultimately, the consistent built-up we see in places like Parashar and in other parts of Mandi district foregrounds how people are forced to live with the continuous construction activities in the name of connectivity, and which is materializing in a very devastating way as can be seen from increasing natural disasters in the mountains.

Akshima is a PhD scholar at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Mandi. Her ongoing research examines the socio-economic dynamics of horticulture markets in Himachal Pradesh, with a focus on migrant labour, and explores the impacts of climate-induced disasters and inclusive disaster management.