Baddi industrial boom leaves villages parched, Sirsa rivulet battles pollution

A detailed watershed study of the 3,256-hectare Baddi micro-watershed in the Shivalik foothills of Solan district has revealed that the rapid expansion of the Baddi industrial belt has come at a heavy cost to neighbouring villages, depleting groundwater, eroding traditional farming practices and sending toxic effluents into the Sirsa rivulet, which ultimately flows into Punjab’s Ropar Ramsar wetland.