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There was a lack of data and information sharing between Punjab and central agencies well after floods started in the state, a Down To Earth (DTE) analysis of situation reports has found.
The two sides only began to share information once the flood situation in the state turned grim, DTE found.
We looked at the daily situation reports of the Central Water Commission (CWC) on the National Disaster Management Portal for a total of 33 days from August 1 to September 3, 2025.
The first flood situation report to mention the tragedy in Punjab was issued on August 27, 2025. It said:
“Water was released from the Ranjit Sagar Dam, a multi-purpose dam of North India in the Pathankot district of Punjab. Heavy rainfall increased the water level of rivers Ravi and Beas and due to this, a total of five districts of Punjab, namely Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Faridkot, Barnala and Kapurthala, were affected by floods.”
It added: “In all, 107 villages have been affected so far. About 110,000 cusecs of water has been released from Ranjit Sagar Dam. About 500 people have been evacuated and shifted to relief camps. Some BSF posts in border districts have also been affected by the floods. Search and rescue operations are being carried out by the Army, Air Force, NDRF, BSF, SDRF, police and local administration.”
When the CWC says ‘flood situation’, it means that the water in the river has crossed the danger level. An ‘Orange alert’ means that the situation is getting worse while the extreme condition (‘Red alert’) means the river has reached historical water levels.
According to the CWC, both the ‘Orange alert’ and ‘Red alert’ conditions of the rivers in Punjab did not arise between August 1 and September 3. Whereas media reports and local residents clearly reported that a flood-like situation had started developing from August 14 and 15 and worsened from August 25.
This shows that there was no coordination between the state and the Centre regarding flood preparations, exchange of information and damage caused.
A senior journalist covering local floods in Punjab told DTE, “After the floods hit and reached a critical level, government agencies had about 10 days to do some flood prevention work. However, nothing concrete was done. Punjab has been affected by floods since August 14, 2025, and the floods really became severe only after August 25. It was then that government agencies became active.”
According to several media reports, a meeting regarding flood prevention was held in Punjab on June 5, 2025. However, on June 22, the southwest monsoon hit the state and after about two months, its four major rivers namely the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi and Ghaggar flooded to such an extent that there was chaos.
But as the CWC report shows, there was neither any activity regarding the floods before August 27 nor was any specific impact of the floods considered.
Whereas according to India Meteorological Department, there were many spells of heavy rainfall in both Himachal and Punjab in the meantime and people were getting affected. Local media reports started reporting victims from around August 17 itself. A minister of the state government in a press conference on August 17 accused the Centre of not providing assistance for such floods.
Local journalists said that they were talking to officials at the local level and reporting the figures of flood relief, rescue, damages and number of victims; there was no mechanism to get a comprehensive picture of the true picture of the floods.
A senior journalist told DTE that there was wrong reporting of figures since the floods started. From around September 3, flood-related information has been sent to the WhatsApp of media persons, which everyone has been reporting. According to the status report being sent to local journalists by the state government, till September 5, 2025, 43 people have died in Punjab, 1,902 villages are submerged and about 384,000 people are affected. At the same time, 170,000 hectares of crops have been damaged, and 20,000 people have been evacuated from the flood-affected areas.
Does this figure match the flood situation data of the CWC? DTE looked at the latest situation report on the National Disaster Management Portal, dated September 3. The report said, “Flood-like situation has persisted in Punjab since August 27, 2025, following heavy rains and release of water from the Ranjit Sagar dam. Thirteen districts, including Amritsar, Barnala, Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Mansa, Moga, Patiala, Rupnagar, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and SAS Nagar, have been affected by this natural disaster. So far, a total of 1,247 villages have been hit by floods, including 150 villages in the last 24 hours. During this period, 37 people are missing and 21 injured, while 354,632 people have been affected. As part of relief and rescue operations, 19,597 people have been evacuated and sent to relief camps. Agriculture has also been severely affected and about 148,431 hectares of land has been affected by the floods. The central government has deployed 13 columns of the Army, 22 NDRF teams and 3 MLH and one Chinook helicopter of the Indian Air Force for rescue and relief operations, which are engaged in relief operations in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.”
Clearly, rescue and relief operations started only after huge losses occurred and pressure increased on officials.
Why was the administration not able to be proactive on time during the floods? On this question, some officials say that earlier, meetings regarding flood prevention used to be held in February and March. However, this time, the meeting was held in June, and it was not possible to repair about 2,800 km of Dhussi bandhs (embankments) and clean drains in 23 districts in just a few days.
Jyoti Swaroop, founder of the non-profit Unnati Cooperative Sabha, who lives near the Pong Dam in Hoshiarpur, one of the worst-affected districts of Punjab, said, “It was raining heavily in Himachal. The hydrological pressure on the Pong dam was constantly increasing. But there was so much silt present that releasing water would have worsened the situation. So de-siltation work started in a very short time. However, by August 25, the water pressure on the dam was so high that it had to be released and due to that everything was submerged.”
Swaroop said that the state government has started relief work in the flood-affected areas at the district level in collaboration with the Indian Red Cross Society and local non-profits. His organisation, in collaboration with the Indian Red Cross Society, is providing cooked and raw rations to people in 20-22 villages.
Right now, floodwaters have started receding in the most affected areas of Punjab. On September 4, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reached Punjab and assured help for damage assessment and compensation. However, politics has now started regarding assistance.