SHIMLA: Situated at an altitude of around 4,080 meter above sea level, the Kholaksa village of Spiti sub division in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh witnessed the nature’s fury on Saturday morning after the flash floods not only washed away the 50 bighas of cultivable fertile land but also completely damaged the newly constructed house.
Other houses too have been damaged after being hit by flash floods. Seeing the magnitude of flood and destruction caused by it, the administration vacated the entire village and provided temporary shelter to the villagers in the government buildings at Losar located some 2 kms from the village.
Seeing the havoc wreaked on the villagers of Kholaksa village people are shocked. Villagers who have lost their fertile land and cash crop are inconsolable. Chhetan Angrup, a villager who lost his newly constructed house in the flash flood said that he had just finished the construction but now has lost everything as he had invested all his lifelong savings in the concrete structure. He said that he was forced to make the new construction after his old house was damaged in the flash flood of 2015.
“Now once again I have lost my house to the flood," said Chhetan Angrup with teary eyes.
The natural calamity wreaked havoc on Kholaksa village to such an extent that all the 43 people living in the village comprising 7 houses have become homeless now. Not only this, seeing their homes getting destroyed in front of their eyes, these villagers were seen praying to God to somehow stop this natural calamity and save their houses from falling due to floods. As the fertile land has been washed away, now the villagers are facing the challenge of survival as they have lost the source of income. They used to earn by sowing cash crops like green peas and other foodgrains.
Naib Tehsildar, Kaza, Prem Chand said that the entire village has been vacated after the flash flood and arrangements for the stay and food for the villagers have been made in the government buildings located in Losar village. He said that this is the third time when the village has been hit by the flash flood. He said that first time the flash flood hit the village in 2010 then in 2015 and now again on Saturday morning.
Lahaul-Spiti MLA Ravi Thakur on Saturday had reached Kholaksa village to help the villagers and seeing the destruction and after listening to cries of villagers he got emotional. He instructed the administration to provide all possible help to the villagers and assured them that they would be resettled at a new and safer location where they would be provided houses along with land.
Ravi Thakur said that he would also try to get proper compensation from the Union Défense Ministry for the villagers of Kholaksa. He said that being a border region, Spiti's geographical conditions are quite challenging while on the other hand, being a tribal area and belonging to the Buddhist community, he would try to provide all kinds of help to the villagers of Kholaksa. He also requested the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs to help the villagers at the earliest.
He said that Kholaksa is the first village in Himachal Pradesh in which flood has destroyed the entire village. In such a situation, he requested the chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to immediately extend a helping hand to the villagers so that relief can be provided to them, who have lost their homes.
