Entire sections of the highway were simply washed away by the swollen Beas, cutting Manali off from the rest of the country. The NHAI now speaks of tunnels and elevated structures as “long-term solutions”, but in the meantime the urgency is about pouring concrete back into the voids gouged by water and landslides. We fix the scar each time, but we do not change the reckless design that ensures the wound will reopen.
As India’s cities continue to grow rapidly, a staggering number of people find themselves living in growing informal settlements.
While the last comprehensive slum census conducted in 2011 showed 65 million people living in slums and other informal settlements, recent estimates suggest the number to be over 100 million, accounting for a quarter of India’s urban population.
A recent study highlighted that India has the world’s highest number of slum clusters in flood-prone areas. https://thewire.in/urban/as-flooding-wreaks-havoc-across-cities-a-nudge-for-urban-policy-to-address-climate-chang
These floods displaced thousands, damaged homes and disrupted the livelihoods of daily-wage workers and small-scale traders who depend on the informal economy. This is not an isolated situation. In Mumbai, the city’s coastal slums face frequent flooding and the growing threat of sea-level rise, disrupting life and livelihood.
The UNDRR Status Report 2020 gets straight to the point: India has a sturdy architecture of laws, policies and institutions on paper but such a scaffold fails at the implementation level. National to state to district level coordination is weak and piecemeal; overlaps in mandates prevail; and disaster management remains more reactive than preventive.
by Namesh Killemsetty, Deepanshu Mohan and Najam Us Saqib
15/09/2025