Why ancient Himalayan homes outlive flash floods

Having lived all his life in

Himachal Pradesh

’s picturesque Tirthan valley, famed for its towering deodar forests, homestays and trout fish, Khub Ram (52) says he has never seen a traditional stone-and-timber

Kathkuni

house being built next to a river. “Perhaps that is why the floods in July and August did not damage them much. They were never in the way,” says Ram, an apple-grower from the remote Tindra village in Kullu’s Banjar tehsil.
These days, Ram is busy sending his apple harvest to the Banjar fruit market. For a month, he couldn’t — heavy rain, cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides had cut off roads and ravaged Himachal, leaving at least 360 dead. Yet his family still lives on the same spot where his great-grandfather built their home 150 years ago. “I renovated it 20 years back, but half the wood and stone came from the original structure,” he adds.