The Punjab state government has declared all 23 districts of the state flood-afflicted, with 30 fatalities and more than 3.5 lakh displaced individuals, due to the nonstop downpour and constantly rising river levels, the government announced on Tuesday. Pathankot had the largest number of deaths with six, Ludhiana had four and three are still missing in Pathankot.
Agriculture has also been affected in a huge manner, with 1,48,590 hectares of crops being submerged due to the floods. Gurdaspur, Amritsar, and Hoshiarpur were amongst the hardest hit districts with 324, 135, and 119 villages, respectively. The state government has organised massive rescue and relief missions and evacuated 19,597 individuals to secure places. The highest number of evacuations was recorded in Gurdaspur (5,581), Ferozepur (3,432) and Amritsar (2,734).
174 relief camps have been established in the state, out of which 74 are still in operation. There are 29 camps in Barnala, 16 in Amritsar and 14 in Pathankot. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed 23 teams in Punjab, with six teams in Gurdaspur and Amritsar, and 3 teams in Ferozepur and Fazilka. All the schools in the state have been declared as closed till 7th September.
Furthermore, the Indian Air Force, Navy and Army are mobilised to aid in rescue efforts, with 12 columns operational, eight on reserve and two engineer columns operational. Relief missions involve between 30 and 35 helicopters to do the evacuation and supply of necessary resources within a short time frame.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has posted red alert warnings in various districts such as Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Rupnagar, Moga, Ludhiana, Barnala and Sangrur, which are in place on the morning of Wednesday. The same applies to neighbouring Haryana: Yamuna Nagar, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panchkula and SAS Nagar. Rahul Gandhi also tweeted on X, requesting PM Modi to take the required actions for the floods which have taken place across Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh.
Governments are still encouraging people to be cautious in risk zones and stay indoors as much as possible in Punjab.
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