'Chardi Kala' Endures as Rivers Recede; Residents Return to Devastation

As flood waters have almost receded in the worst-hit districts of Panjab, the situation continues to be worrying at Sasrali Colony village in Ludhiana where a change in river Satluj river’s course has eroded nearly 300 acres of farmland. The erosion rate continues to be 'at least two acres per day'. On 23 Sep, Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner (DC) Himanshu Jain sought 'engineering support for levee system assessment' from the Indian Army. Simultaneously, in Ahli Kalan village on river Beas, work is going on to plug a 750-metre-long breach in a temporary levee. In the absence of government support, 33 earth-loaded tractor-trolleys and a diesel tanker from Gehal village in Barnala district reached the flood-hit village by noon on 23 Sep. 'After we unloaded our trolleys, we began to move earth already dumped in the village. We shall work till late evening and shall return next morning,' said a young farmer who asked to withhold his name because all of them were contributing equally and a single person should not get prominence. Rashpal Singh Sandhu, who has been coordinating work and keeping accounts, said, 'The despair was just a day long. It was replaced with Chardi Kala (ascending spirit). It has been like a mela (fair), people coming here with help, our villagers serving them and joining them in work.’ At several places where breaches are being plugged or fields are being desilted, farmers from other areas are bringing their tractors along with diesel. Meanwhile, displaced families are returning to their homes to confront cracked walls, unsafe floors, vanished farmland, and an uncertain future. In district after district, people are struggling to restart life from scratch. Concurrently, approximately 16K acres of land out of the total 21.6K acres between the border fence on the Indian side and the zero line on the India-Pakistan international border across 220 villages in six districts were inundated. Farmers whose land lies beyond the fence have urged the Border Security Force to allow them to carry out desilting once the water recedes, as the time available to sow wheat is very limited (earlier coverage).