By Sonam C

In the early summer of 2018, right after I had finished my Class 12 CBSE Board exams, I went with my family to the village of Malana. When I recall this time, I instinctively tell people “We went on a spiritual tour, like a pilgrimage.” Hardly, anyone believes that a group consisting of me, my sister, my mother, uncle and aunt, my cousin, her husband and her two kids travelled and trekked to Malana to pay our respects to the local god Jamlu.

Malana is, in/famously, known for the Malana weed among the youth tourist population that visits Himachal Pradesh. My relatives told me about the presence of even drug lords from Israel in Malana before the clamp down by the government. Malana, among travellers and locals, is also in/famous for being closed-off from the world, in the sense that there is a belief that the local God of Malana, Jamlu, keeps a discretion of the visitors visiting the valley. In Penelope Chetwode’s Kulu: The End of the Habitable World, she dedicates an entire chapter “Rejected by Jamlu” on her encounters with heavy rains on the day of her travel to Malana valley, accrediting the rumors and possible belief of Jamlu’s discretion in preventing people from entering his village. Malana is also famous among anthropologists, travelers and folklorists for the fact that it considers itself the oldest democracy in the world, a sort of a round-table of elected village elders headed by Jamlu who communicates through the local messenger or the Gur. There is one law that forbids the villagers from touching outsiders and vice-e-versa the outsiders are forbidden from entering the temple grounds and touching the villagers. It is unclear if interaction is forbidden but the Malana people keep a proximity from the outsiders for sure, earning the name of “Land of Taboos.” Malana is also famous for the belief that Malana people are the descendents of the Greek soldiers from Alexander’s army when they attempted to enter the then Hindustan. Malana also has a language that differs from the Kullu valley in which it is primarily situated. There are legends around Jamlu Devta himself, from his brotherly association with the local God of Lahaul, Ghepan, to his encounter with one of Akbar’s governors. During the trek, as my sister and I are partly Lahauli, we joked around how we will be accepted by the Malana, but not our relatives and even our mother. Malana is cut off from the world in the real sense of its geographical location. You have to cross a small man-made bridge to trek in an almost 90 degree slant towards the valley. Back then, they used a locally made rope and pulley system to transfer vegetables or lightweight materials or children. There is another way to reach Malana- the Chandrakhani trek starting from Naggar. It includes crossing a forest consisting of wild animals and plants, a fulfilling but dangerous trek advised to be taken with a guide. 

Our host was one of the locals who knew my cousin’s husband. We had our lunch in his traditional hut house. We climbed the wooden stairs, sat on the carpets, and ate the food that was served. The host was kind; he even gave me a wooden stick after he heard about my knee pains from the trek. My travels to the Land of Taboos, Malana, alerted me to two situations that still ring in my ears. First, it is the association of weed and daily earnings of the villagers. This situation will be elaborated in another article on Malana. 

The second situation was the matter of electricity. In the host’s house, the bulb was flickering. Even though it was daytime with bleak rays of sunshine, the inner parts of the house required some light in order for us to see each other or eat food. The host told us about the electricity problem. The government built a dam in Malana against which many from the village had protested. But they were promised that they would receive electricity since they would be using the river that flowed through Malana. But the host showed us the situation- during daytime when most of the things could be done due to sun rays, they were able to use some electricity. But during nighttime, when it was essential, they did not get electricity at all. When we exited the valley, we came across the dry river, and the story of our host became the background to the political science lectures on dam construction, corruption and the government’s neglect of the local communities in the name of development. The memory of that landscape is unforgettable till this day- a dried river surrounded by pine trees and a narrow road. 

For the past two years, we have been hearing news about cloudbursts and the destruction of roads and dams in Shimla, Mandi, Kullu and Lahaul valley. Last year, in August, the Malana dam was destroyed (Chandel 2024). Should we take this as nature or Jamlu’s fury? These frequent cloudbursts should be a reminder that the Himalayas are the most vulnerable geographical regions, prone to earthquakes and landslides/avalanches. Can’t we rethink our incessant belief that hydropower projects are pathways to development? Can’t we think of alternative sources of energy that can generate revenue and help the local communities as well? 

In the midst of anxiety about another landslide, or another cloudburst, I saw the news of another approval, the inking of MOU with the Telangana government for two hydropower projects, Seli and Miyar, in Lahaul valley (Bhandari 2025). Both of these regions are prone to floods, avalanches and potential glacial lake outbursts. An ICSSR funded ongoing project on climate extremes notes, “The valley is under constant threat of increasing lake size in higher reaches that may make the hydro-power projects a riskier venture. Due to climatic changes, some of the lakes have grown in size which during any extreme precipitation event may trigger unprecedented flooding in the valley. This bring into light the risks involved with development of hydropower projects; we are borne witness to recent Chamoli floods of February 2021 in Uttarakhand; flash floods and landslides in Kullu, Kinnaur and Lahaul & Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh in July-August 2021 and July 2023 where massive damage to infrastructure was caused by extreme events.” (Chandel and Rana 2023) 

In the news, the government has guaranteed free electricity to the people of the state. But as the past examples of such a promise narrated in the above passages show, these public interest solutions reflect a concealed reality; a deeper inference to viewing the indigenous, ecologically rich regions as spaces of resource extraction. 

The Pahadi lives and livelihoods are intrinsically connected to the mountains. Unless we begin living and listening to the lores of the mountains, our development projects will only be temporary strategies of upliftment that will impose permanent damage on the vulnerable ecologies and communities living there. By lores, I refer to the local knowledge systems that have been passed down as oral traditions in the local communities for generations. These local knowledge systems can be encountered through oral narratives of idioms, phrases, warnings, architectural styles of house construction, dwelling, harvesting etc. Listening to the local knowledge systems is the first step towards ensuring a future for the community living in these regions. 

References:

Penelope Chetwode. Kulu: The End of the Habitable World. Time Books International, 1990. 

Rahul Bhandari. “Himachal Pradesh and Telangana Ink Historic MoU for 520 MW Hydro Power Projects in Lahaul-Spiti” The News Himachal, 29 March 2025. https://thenewshimachal.com/2025/03/himachal-pradesh-and-telangana-ink-historic-mou-for-520-mw-hydro-power-projects-in-lahaul-spiti/.

Vedant Chandel. “5 killed, 50 missing in Himachal, breach at Malana 1 dam as cloudbursts wreak havoc” Hindustan Times, Aug 02, 2024. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/5-killed-50-missing-in-himachal-breach-at-malana-1-dam-as-cloudbursts-wreak-havoc-101722536886191.html. 

Vishwa B. S. Chandel, and Beant Singh Rana. “Climate Extremes and Sustainability Issues: A Case of Proposed Hydropower Projects in Lahaul Valley, Himachal Pradesh” Curr. World Environ., Vol. 18(3) 1345-1355 (2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.18.3.34.