At 10pm on Tuesday 25th May one of the buildings at the Forestry Department guest house at Triund was hit by lightning. The entire building burnt to the ground, nothing could be salvaged from the ashes.

Mountain Cleaners sadly lost their equipment in the fire and are appealing to people for their help in replacing the items they lost especially blankets, coats and sleeping bags.

The building was 97 years old and built by the British. This incident highlights the need for water at Triund. We are in the 2nd wettest place in India yet we have no water. Maybe the building could have been saved if we had. The only water we have is in a rainwater tank purchased and installed by Mountain Cleaners and this is used for the toilet.

Manu our employees father has been managing the guest house for the past 25 years so this is a big shock for him to. They lost many personal items in the fire.

We can only look forward though and a new building will be constructed soon. We met with Basu Khoshal (DFO) and asked the Forestry Department to build something that was in harmony with nature not a concrete mass. They have already constructed a ‘green’ building in Shimla and are open to the idea and want to know more. Maybe now we can get water to Triund too.

A list of all the items is posted below, please help if you can.

Please contact jodie@mountaincleaners.org