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In Shimla city in India’s mountainous Himachal Pradesh state, apple farmer Sanjay Chauhan recalls the deadly rainfall in the region last year that killed 428 people and broke local rainfall records.

“Buildings have collapsed, roads are broken, there were so many landslides including one that has destroyed a large part of my orchard,” said the 56-year-old farmer, who lives in the town of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.

Chauhan, who’s also the former mayor of Shimla, wants to see a firm plan that addresses climate change in the face of the region’s growing population and development needs.

The men were in Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas, because the British colonial government in India moved there every summer to escape the heat of Kolkata.

Hundreds of roads remain blocked and schools in the capital city of Shimla have been ordered shut as the Indian Air Force and disaster response teams help evacuate people from low-lying, vulnerable areas.