Farmers race against time to clear fields of sand

A one-kilometre breach in bundh, hundreds of acres of fields filled with sand, and hundreds more with wheat yet to be sown!

Post the devastating floods at Sultanpur Lodhi, villagers have flagged a serious dearth of tractors and diesel for the tri-fold gargantuan task --- picking up sand from the fields, sowing wheat and plugging the bundh. Due to most tractors being pressed into service for clearing the fields --- the work on both sowing wheat and bundh is affected.

Rampur Gaura village in Sultanpur Lodhi has the largest --- one-kilometre long -- bundh breach remaining to be plugged in the state. This breach caused the Beas river to change course, decimating the entire Rampur Gaura village. But of the 60 to 70 tractors formerly deputed at the bundh, only six to seven 7 remain, the rest routed to fields. Villagers are now rationing tractors to make sure everyone gets the wheat sowed.

Race against time

0Rampur Gaura is a surreal sight --- sand mounds stacked for kilometres by the Beas river -- from Baupur village across Mohemmadbad, Mand Gujjranwala, Bhaini Kadar Baksh, Mand Mubarakpur, Bandu Jadid, all the way up to Sangra. This sand brought from the fields, is now being used to plug the bundh.

Baupur's Paramjit Singh and kar sewak Baba Balbir Singh (Sarhali Dera chief Sukha Singh's key lieutenant) stand atop a towering sand mound with a list in hand --- of farmers whose fields are to be cleared of sand. Hundreds of farmers await their turn for tractor allocation. It is left to the villagers and sewadars to finish the gargantuan task in time for the wheat-sowing season.

Sarhali Dera leader Balbir Singh says, "The list from where sand has to be picked up is never ending. Sand from one-feet to five-feet is there in the fields. We need more tractors. For wheat sowing, we are rationing one tractor per five acres, then onto next. Until a few days ago, there were 50 to 60 tractors on the bundh, now there are only six to seven left because the rest have been sent to the villages for lifting sand and sowing wheat. Four hundred feet of the bundh has been plugged, but much is still left. In a day, we can only manage 16 feet (8 each) from both sides. Until the wheat sowing season, the tractors and JCBs will be first prioritised to aid the farmers."

Baupur Sarpanch's brother Paramjit Singh says, "We are in dire need of tractors and diesel. We make lists of farmers with tractors, whose vehicles are deputed on a rotation basis. Small farmers don't have tractors and we are sort of diesel. About 200 tractors are presently working. But with work remaining, we can use hundreds more, also JCBs and big trolleys. Sand is still accumulated on 500-600 acres of land across villages."