Punjab's worst floods since 1988

Who: People in more than a dozen Punjab districts, the Army and disaster teams, volunteers and Sikh relief groups, the Punjab government under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) that runs the Bhakra and Pong dams.

What: Punjab received 253.7 mm of rain in August 2025, 74 per cent above normal and the highest in 25 years, while heavy rain in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir filled the upper catchments of the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi. Bhakra and Pong were past safe storage by 20 August and began heavy releases on 26 August. On 26 and 27 August Ranjit Sagar dam on the Ravi released over 2 lakh cusecs, and gates at the Madhopur headworks jammed or broke. The Army began rescue work on 27 August.

Counts rose through the crisis. The state government's figures on about 7 September were 1,698 villages hit and 39 deaths; Mongabay India on 9 September reported about 1,900 villages, at least 51 deaths, some 384,000 people affected and about 4 lakh acres of crops damaged. The state offered Rs 20,000 an acre for crop loss and Rs 4 lakh to the families of the dead.

Sikh organisations and farmer unions ran langars in Ajnala and Amritsar, and farmers carried soil by tractor to rebuild washed-out embankments. Villagers and farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said the government was largely absent, and one villager at Machhiwal said the warning came only about half an hour before the water.

Where: Gurdaspur was worst hit, with 323 villages by 31 August, followed by Amritsar's Ajnala belt, Pathankot, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur. On 27 August the Ravi also entered Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan; the saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was reported safe on the first floor. Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj, officiating Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, asked both governments to protect the shrine and asked the SGPC to gather a damage report.

Why it mattered: Mongabay and Scroll call it the worst flooding since 1988, when about 2,500 villages were submerged and about 600 people died. SANDRP's Himanshu Thakkar said Ranjit Sagar released more water than it received from 27 August, and critics blamed dam management, late embankment repair and poor drainage. Himachal Pradesh filed an FIR against the BBMB and a petition seeking an audit went to the National Green Tribunal.