Normal life in Mandi and Kulu districts has been paralysed like rest of the State due to heavy snowfall and rain which lashed the State over the past two days.
Over 2,600 tourists, some with swollen feet and legs, who had been stranded between Marhi and Manali were rescued by the district administration and brought to safety.
It was a commendable and tough exercise, but many are questioning as to why the tourists were allowed to proceed to areas beyond Manali when the sky was overcast and the meteorological office at Shimla had sounded a warning of heavy snowfall.
The sky is still overcast and it is snowing profusely in higher reaches. Many lakes in the Beas Valley like Prashar, Kamaru Nag and Dehnasar, have frozen and are buried under a deep layers of snow.
The picture of the State as a whole has turned gloomy by the first and the worst snowfall after a long spell of dry weather which had caused widespread damage to the fruit and vegetable crops besides taking a toll of as many as eight persons across the State and the number was likely to increase if more dead bodies are recovered from beneath the snow.
The vulnerability of the electricity network has been badly exposed with the first spell of snow, thanks to the overhead network of electricity lines, which threw the entire system out of gear plunging into darkness about 60 per cent of the State for the last over 60 hours.
Power scientists wonder why the Government or the HPSEB had failed to switch over to underground power lines as most of the cold countries in the world have already done.
The devastation caused by the heavy rains and snowfall have partially or wholly closed as many as 300 State highways and five national highways of the hill State badly hitting the supply of the essential services, it has been officially admitted.