With a population of 8,096 people recorded in the 2011 Indian census Manali is the beginning of an ancient trade route through Lahaul (H.P.)

Manali is a popular tourist destination in India and serves as the gateway to the Lahaul and Spiti district as well as the city of Leh in Ladakh.

[4] In Hindu cosmology, Manu is believed to have stepped off his ark in Manali to recreate human life after a great flood had deluged the world at the end of an cyclic age.

Manali features a subtropical highland climate (Cfb) with warm summers, relatively cold winters, and a high diurnal temperature variation.

Pawan Hans, the Government charter agency, provides helicopter-taxi service connecting Shimla to Chandigarh, Kullu, Kangra and Dharamshala.

The Kalka–Shimla Railway is a nostalgic narrow-gauge route culminating at the state capital of Shimla wherefrom one has to travel by road to Manali.

Unplanned and rampant construction has led to severe depletion of forests and pollution of river bodies, along with garbage being disposed of on the side of the mountains.

There has been a loss of habitat to various species of fauna, not limited to the Himalayan monal, incidentally the state bird of Uttarakhand.