Naseeb Singh, 28, who farms over 17 hectares of land in a village near Dera Baba Nanak town in Gurdaspur, encountered a strange problem when he inspected his farm after the recent floods: almost two hectares of his field had turned into a pit full of flood water and the rest was covered in silt.
Standing next to a broken embankment on his farmland near the India-Pakistan border, Mr Naseeb said: “The band (dyke) broke at night, and the force with which the water flowed in created this pit, which is about 30 to 40 feet deep. The rest of my field was covered in over a foot and a half of silt. We have been working on cleaning it up for the past two weeks.”
The farmer estimates his losses at over ₹50 lakh. “I have no idea how to repay my loans worth ₹10 lakh,” he said.
In August and September, Punjab faced one of its worst floods in decades, affecting more than 20 lakh people in 2,614 villages and displacing 6.87 lakh people.
Farmers in several villages near the Ravi river in northwestern Punjab’s Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts shared similar stories of farmland destruction and crop losses, amid complaints of apathy from the central and state governments.
According to Punjab government data, floods have affected around 2 lakh hectares of agricultural land, which is less than 5% of the total area sown during the kharif season.
Last month, the state government announced compensation of ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 per hectare, depending on the extent of damage. However, the aid has yet to be released.
When contacted, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party said the compensation announced by the Punjab government is “unprecedented”. “For the first time, we have fixed a period of 45 days, within which we will complete the girdawari (inspection) and ensure that every affected person receives the compensation check,” a party statement said.
Help from volunteers
Most affected farmers The Hindu said they had suffered losses running into lakhs of rupees and expressed concern over rising interest on their existing loan.
Many also said they were likely to miss the rabi sowing season in November given the extensive work needed to restore their land, made all the more difficult by the shortage of money and labor.
At his field, where two tractors and a bulldozer are working to remove the sludge and fill the pit, Mr Naseeb said dozens of volunteers, mostly farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have worked tirelessly with him free of charge. “Without them I couldn’t have done anything. The government has not done anything for us yet,” he said.
Two of his friends helped Malki Singh, 36, remove silt from the field in Hoshiarpur. “When we got here, there was six to eight feet of silt on the land. We’ve been working here for about a week.”
He added that he, along with others, “their (volunteer work)” for the past one and a half months in various flood-affected villages in the area.
Amrik Singh, a 45-year-old father of three, said his entire cauliflower crop, covering four hectares of land, was washed away by the flood. “I lost around ₹14 lakh in the disaster. I had taken a loan of ₹1 lakh from the bank and a loan of ₹50,000 from a bank. aartiya (middleman) for the costs of sowing the crop. Now I am thinking of selling one or two of my three buffalos to help them repay at least part of the loan,” he said.
“How much help do I get? (Will I get some help),” he asked at the end of the conversation.
In Amritsar’s Ghonewala village, there have been several cases of floods that breached the embankments along agricultural lands and caused the fields to become covered with silt. While some fields are still completely filled with flood water, others have paddy fields, but the produce has been affected.
Surjeet Singh, 47, stands next to his one-hectare plot, most of which has been turned into a deep well by the breach. “Only in our village, the band has been broken into in about 10 different areas. A similar situation prevails in every village in this belt close to the river,” he said.
In the village, several gurdwara committees are helping to rebuild the broken dikes, while the affected farmers wait for government support.
Rising debts
Nishand Singh, 40, stands next to his nine-hectare field, part of which is still flooded while the rice crop is on the rest. “The standing crops have very little grain. I will have to plow it back into the ground. There is no point in spending money on the harvest.”
The farmer said he got a loan of ₹7 lakh from a bank, but the ₹2.5 lakh he borrowed from a middleman will hurt him more as it carries an interest rate of 24% per annum.
“The state and central governments have not done anything so far. The official machinery is completely lacking on the ground. No compensation has been given yet. Only an announcement has been made; that too is too little,” said Baljit Singh Grewal, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (Punjab unit).
Mr Grewal said the government should immediately distribute the compensation in cash as farmers are under dire need.
“Farmer unions and the general public are coming forward to repair the broken embankments while officials are nowhere to be seen,” he said.
In Paharipur’s Pathankot village, water has disappeared from fields, but farmers say standing crops look fine only from a distance.
Published – Oct 11, 2025 03:33 IST
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