This is the second of a 6-part series. Read the first and third parts
Punjab, which is also called ‘India’s breadbasket’, has been brought to its knees by three floods in the past seven years. The floods of 2025 have been especially damaging.
In just 10-15 days, 2,520 villages in the state of 30 million people were submerged. Nearly 400,000 people directly connected to agriculture were affected. Around 10,000 houses were damaged, and 25,000 people had to leave their homes and fields. Fifty-eight lives were lost, 38 people were injured, and five remain missing.
The most alarming fact is that water spread over nearly 700,000 hectares, completely destroying the almost ready-to-harvest crops on 202,094.701 hectares of cultivable land. Approximately 1,000 large livestock and 35,000 poultry were lost to the swirling waters. Now, as the waters recede, the fields around the submerged areas have turned into mounds of silt and sand.
In Gurdaspur, Tej Pratap Singh, an organic farmer from Shikar village, summarised the state-of-affairs in one line: “What could be a bigger example of the consequences of both climate change and governmental mismanagement?” He added, “It should also be understood that the brunt of this will hit farmers and labourers the most.”
In Hardowal village of Gurdaspur, about 12 kilometres from the banks of the Ravi river, Jobanjeet Singh, remarked as he surveyed his ruined fields, “The fields, now quagmired with knee-deep silt, can only be worked with tank-equipped combine machines. Tractors cannot be driven in such fields.”
Singh, showing the grain extracted from the combine in his fist, said, “Look at this. What use are these paddy grains now? They have turned black; it is unlikely that even a single rupee can be earned from them.”
In the same village, 60-year-old Dalbir Kaur, looking at her submerged and mud-laden fields, said, “This flood was much more dangerous than the one in 1988.” Recalling the tragedy, she added, “On August 25 at midnight, the deluge came suddenly. We had to flee to the rooftops. There was no announcement. We never imagined water would reach this far. Even now, the houses and fields are covered with up to two feet of silt.”
Hardowal is located between a railway line and a state highway. As a result, all surrounding villages are also submerged. Sugarcane and paddy crops remain underwater. The flood has changed a lot in Punjab.
In Amritsar, farmer Gurnur Singh says, “Earlier, combine machines from Punjab used to go to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. This is the first time tank-equipped combine machines have reached Punjab from Uttar Pradesh. These are currently supporting our ruined fields.”
Jobanjeet, calculating with his fingers for his three-acre (1.21 hectares) field, said, “The cost for one acre was around Rs 22,000. A tank-equipped combine harvesting machine costs Rs 6,000 per acre. The direct cost per acre is Rs 28,000. No official assessment has been done yet. The announced compensation of Rs 20,000 for 100 per cent loss—whether we will get it or not—is uncertain.”
Picking up the silt from his fields, he asked, “Who will buy this? The slogan ‘whose field, whose sand’ (Jisda Khet, Usdi Ret) only works in principle. Where is pure sand here? This is soil, and this quagmire will not dry until the Rabi season. We will not be able to sow wheat this time.”
Singh is completely shattered by the flood’s impact. “Our animals are hungry; they don’t even have fodder. We are keeping them alive with fodder borrowed from relatives. I have eight animals, including one cow and two goats. The entire village is destroyed.”
The biggest question facing farmers is what to do with the silt, which is 95 per cent soil and only five per cent sand. Farmers neither have the financial resources to remove it nor any alternative path.
This has created a crisis for the Rabi season. A professor at Punjab Agricultural University, speaking on condition of anonymity, said not only will wheat sowing be delayed this Rabi season in Punjab, but yields will also be significantly reduced. Additionally, farmers who were growing vegetables or other crops between paddy and wheat have also been devastated.