Restaurant owner, Manish Ajwan
Dehradun, September 23, 2025: “Exactly one week ago, that Tuesday morning felt like it brought a curse. The chaos from Karli Gad’s wrath has now subsided, but the tale of destruction is scattered everywhere.” The shudder in Manish’s voice was clearly visible on his face as he said these words. He continued, “Look over there, across the Karli Gad river, that stream coming down the mountain slope was once a thin, narrow gully. A tsunami was born right there in that stream. It felt like Yamraj himself was riding on those waves that night. Everything in its path—hotels, resorts, homes, and restaurants—was swallowed by the waves.”
Karli Gad is located four kilometers from Sahastradhara, a popular tourist spot in Dehradun. This is the very place where a cloudburst on the night of September 15 caused the deluge. Although reaching Karli Gad that day was like conquering Everest, it’s still not easy to get there even after all this time. The road has been made passable for two-wheelers and smaller vehicles, albeit with a bumpy ride. But let’s move on from the geography and tell you who Manish is.
This young man, around 24-25 years old, runs a restaurant on the main road in Karli Gad. A resident of Manjhada, Manish Ajwan was at his restaurant that evening. We met today as he reopened his place for the first time since the incident. In our conversation, he said that the horrific scene from that night still shakes his heart. In his own words, “What I saw with my own eyes is a story that can only be felt.”
That evening, the rain started and suddenly intensified around 7:30 PM. At 8:30 PM, I finished my work and headed home, but fate had other plans. I got close to my house on a JCB, but the road ahead was blocked. I had to take shelter at a friend’s house. Around 10:30 PM, a strange smell of mud filled the air, and the roar of the river was so terrifying that it made my heart pound. I immediately called my mother, brother, sister-in-law, and nephews and told them to evacuate the house.
Along with more than fifty other families from the village, we ran toward the jungle without a second thought. The sky was pouring down on us, and the ground was shaking below. In that torrential rain, we all held our breath and watched the wrath of Karli Gad. The rain paused slightly between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM, but picked up speed again before dawn. The scene that appeared at daybreak was mind-boggling. The thin and narrow streams flowing from the opposite hill and merging into the Karli Gad river turned into monstrous waves early Tuesday morning. With a terrifying roar, it felt as if Yamraj himself was riding them. The deluge swallowed several resorts and homes in an instant. Everyone on both sides of the river spent the night in terror. The situation in the morning was such that the Almighty had saved our lives but taken away our livelihoods.
