Over 5,300 acres washed away in floods in 15 Punjab districts

Over 5,300 acres of land, spread across 15 of the 23 districts in Punjab, has been washed away in the recent floods that ravaged the state in August-September.

The data regarding the total land washed away — 5,307 acres — was revealed after the government completed the special girdawari of the flood-affected areas in the state.

The land got washed away due to the heavy flow of water in the Ravi, Beas and the Sutlej (after its confluence with the Beas at Harike) in August and due to the Beas changing its course following nearly 55 breaches in its embankments.

According to the data available with The Tribune, the maximum land was washed away in Amritsar (1,515 acres), Ferozepur (1,101 acres), Gurdaspur (544 acres), Nawanshahr (539 acres), Kapurthala (376 acres), Ludhiana (264 acres), Fazilka (244 acres), Mohali (208 acres), Pathankot (118 acres) and Jalandhar (100 acres). In Tarn Taran, Patiala, Hoshiarpur and Moga, the land washed away is less than 100 acres each.

Most of the land that has been washed away was privately owned. Over the years, as the rivers meandered and changed their course, which revenue officials claim could be about 100 ft in a decade, the exposed land was first encroached upon and later allotted to people by successive governments.

Also, for the past many decades, part of the village land has been inside what was once the riverbed. In Tarn Taran district, part of the land of some 50-odd villages between Bhalojala and Harike falls in the Beas riverbed and between Harike and Muthianwala in the Sutlej riverbed. Since this land is much cheaper, and the risk of floods has not been so grave in the past, many people consider buying this cheaper land a good investment. However, this time, when the rivers were in spate and floods occurred, part of this land was washed away.

Though the state government and the Centre have been at loggerheads over the issue of illegal mining in the riverbeds leading to floods, in private, revenue officials in the flood-affected areas say that illegal mining did contribute to the land being washed away.

It is learnt that as per the norms for assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund, the owners of this land will get a compensation of Rs 19,000 per acre (or Rs 47,000 per hectare). It is believed that the owners will not be able to cultivate this land, which has developed deep craters after being washed away, for a good three to four years, even after the floodwaters have subsided and the water stream is narrower. Major Singh, a farmer in Bamial in Pathankot, whose eight acres of land has been washed away by the Ujh river, said there was a need for a relook into the policy for the grant of compensation as farmers like him would not be able to cultivate land for three to four years now.

The only districts where land has been spared from being washed away are Mansa, Muktsar, Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda, Faridkot, Malerkotla and Fatehgarh Sahib.

This is a record of sorts, with officials claiming that they have never seen such vast portions of land being washed away in floods. “In the past four decades, never have such huge portions of land being washed away. Initially, when the data came, we thought of getting a second assessment done, which in turn confirmed our worst fears,” Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue, Anurag Verma said, adding that they would now start giving compensation to the affected land owners.