Munish Sood
MANDI: For Seema Sharma and her husband, respected cultural figures who run a reputed drama school at Sathole in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, the story of development has turned into a personal tragedy.
The couple has alleged that unscientific construction under the National Highway-3 project has diverted rainwater into their farmland, leaving years of hard work and cultivation destroyed.
Seema says she repeatedly appealed to officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to divert the water, but her complaints were ignored. “They kept listening, but they never acted. One company blamed another while my land was drowned. My life’s earnings have been wiped out,” she said. The couple now demands immediate compensation and permanent measures to save whatever remains of their land.
The cause, she alleged, was the negligent and unscientific work under the National Highway-3 (Sathole-Mandi-Kotli) project. Years of toil, cultivation and her family’s lifeline have been washed away. Despite repeated complaints, only she received were excuses. One construction company shifted blame onto another, while officials looked the other way.
“They have hollowed out my land and my life. In the name of development, they have destroyed everything I built,” Seema said.
Cracks in homes, villages under threat
Seema Sharma’s ordeal is not an isolated case. In Mandi district, entire villages have been shaken by reckless road widening. Families in Tanipari, Shala Nal and other villages have seen their houses develop cracks and the ground beneath them begin to sink. Several families have already been forced to vacate their homes. Locals blame the NHAI for failing to build protective retaining walls or adopting scientific cutting practices.
In Shimla and Solan districts, residents have suffered heavily due to vertical slope cutting and unchecked dumping of debris during four-lane expansion works. Cracks have developed in houses near the four-lane highway while some have collapsed entirely. In many cases, families have spent lakhs from their own pockets to repair the damage, with no support from the NHAI or its contractors.
Farmers in these areas alleged that their agricultural land had been rendered barren by debris sliding down the slopes. They alleged that compensation had either not been paid or was far below the losses suffered.
Kullu and Kangra districts also affected
The problem is equally severe in Kullu and Kangra where villagers report land sinking, frequent landslides and destruction of orchards and farmland. In several areas, people say the widening of highways has left them with no safe passage to their homes, while vibrations from heavy machinery have damaged existing houses.
Farmers have accused the NHAI of ignoring their concerns during land acquisition and failing to implement proper drainage systems, leading to waterlogging and soil erosion.
Environmental experts have also raised alarms about the large-scale felling of trees and destabilisation of slopes caused by unscientific cutting. Heavy landslides have been reported along the highway stretches in Mandi, Kullu and Shimla, leading to loss of property worth crores. Even the forest department has lodged formal complaints after massive slides linked to highway work damaged public assets.
Citizens across Himachal argue that the highways, which were meant to bring development and connectivity, are instead uprooting lives and turning fertile land into wasteland. Public meetings and farmers’ gatherings in different districts have repeatedly accused the NHAI of negligence, lack of planning and failure to compensate affected families.
