Tractor: Authorities Called them ‘Nuisance Vehicles,’ they Turned Saviors

In the months, years before the floods, Panjab authorities labelled tractors as 'nuisance vehicles'—fined them for road violations and in some cases even impounded them—but now they proved to be the state's most reliable rescue tools amid rescue and relief operations. As torrential rains lashed vast stretches of Panjab, these tractors are venturing deep into submerged regions, rescuing stranded families and delivering critical supplies like food, drinking water, and medicine. In areas where government vehicles and emergency services cannot reach, tractors are moving through waist-deep water, undeterred by the conditions. Even senior officials were seen riding these very tractors to navigate flood-hit zones. This turnaround not only highlights the resilience of Panjab’s farming community but also reveals the deep disconnect that often exists between policy and ground realities. In February 2024, during the Farmers Protest 2.0 (2024-2025) the Punjab and Haryana High Court slammed protesting farmers, camping at the Shambhu border with hundreds of tractors, and said that tractor trailers cannot be used on highways. 'According to the Motor Vehicle Act, you can’t use tractor-trailers on the highway...You are traveling from Amritsar to Delhi on trailers,' the bench orally remarked, adding that it is only in this country that tractor-trailers are plying on highways. At that time the Indian union government kept reasoning that farmers were blocked on Shambhu and Khanauri interstate borders between Panjab and Haryana because they were coming on tractors. Though later they didn't let farmers proceed to Delhi even by foot and tear gassed them. Even during the Farmers Protest 1.0 (2020-2021) the union government did not allow farmers to take out tractor marches. Farmer unions kept insisting that tractors are vital to their livelihood and often their only vehicle, but their voice fell on deaf ears. Villagers and tractor owners, many of whom had faced penalties in the past, are now volunteering their vehicles and risking their lives to help neighbors and strangers alike. In the eyes of Panjab’s people, these tractors are no longer traffic violators—they are lifelines. And their drivers, real-life heroes (earlier coverage).