Jalandhar: Facing massive losses in light of unprecedented floods, the Punjab government has issued a show cause notice to Level 9 Biz Private Limited, a company which had submitted a report in December 2024 stating that the flood gates of the Madhopur barrage, in Pathankot district, were in perfect condition even as they were not. The Madhopur floodgates collapsed on August 27 amid incessant rains and floods in the state, leading to the tragic death of an employee of the Punjab water resources department. He was swept away in the overflowing Ravi River.Speaking to The Wire, Punjab water resources minister Barinder Kumar Goyal said that the state is facing an estimated Rs 13,500 crore loss due to the floods. “The amount of loss will increase further, as the flood water has started receding, bringing to light the exact extent of damage in the flood-affected region,” he said.The Madhopur barrage gates are located on the downstream of the Ranjit Sagar Dam on the Ravi River in Punjab, which enters from Pathankot and flows along the Indo-Pak international border before entering Pakistan from Narowal. In Pakistan, Ravi joins the Chenab River.Ranjit Sagar Dam, also known as Thein Dam, is situated on Ravi river in Shahpur Kandi, Pathankot district. The dam serves the irrigation and hydroelectric requirements of Punjab.A senior official with the water resources department told The Wire that the Ravi river alone accounted for 85% of floods in the state this year, severely affecting the three bordering districts of Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Amritsar.The other two main rivers of Punjab – Sutlej and Beas – also ran full spate and submerged Ferozepur, Fazilka, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Ropar, Mansa and Moga districts, but it is the Ravi which caused the maximum damage.Known as the food bowl of India, Punjab is staring at massive and compounded losses, as the overflowing Ravi washed away everything that came in its way – people, livestock, houses, crops, fields, tractors and an entire state infrastructure.At least 56 people lost their lives this year, while efforts to dispose of dead livestock were underway by the Punjab government and local NGOs. Around 4.5 acres of crops have been damaged.At 320 kilometres, Ravi is one of the shortest rivers of Punjab. It is also considered the safest among the three main rivers, as during the 2019 and 2023 floods, it was Sutlej and Beas that flooded the region.Ravi is part of the Indus Waters Treaty under which water from three rivers – Ravi, Sutlej and Beas – were allocated to India and that of Jhelum and Chenab to Pakistan. Ravi originates from Bara Bhangal in Himachal Pradesh, crosses Chamba town and enters Punjab through Madhopur in Pathankot.The Ravi’s safe carrying capacity is 9.7 lakh cusecs but a severe flood spell in the river led to huge loss of life, crops and property. Similarly, the safe carrying capacity of Sutlej was 7 lakh cusecs and that of Beas was 6 lakh cusecs.Unprecedented rainfallAs per data accessed by The Wire, excessive rainfall in the last week of August resulted in heavy inflows into the Ravi river, while the torrents in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Ujh River, ran in full spate acutely flooding Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts.The maximum floodwaters came through the Ravi river’s tributaries and rivulets, locally known as nallahs and khuds. While the discharge from Ranjit Sagar dam was 2.15 lakh cusecs, over 2 lakh cusecs came from in Ujh River and 9.89 lakh cusecs came from other rivulets of Pathankot and Pakistan, amounting the total inflows to 14.11 lakh cusecs.Among the rivulets, the highest inflows came from Shingarwan, Jalalia, Khuni Nallah, Tarna Nallah in Jammu and Kashmir, Shehar Channi Khad, Naumni and Sakki Nallah Nallah in Punjab and Basantar and Bain Nallah of Pakistan.The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted heavy rainfall in the catchment area of Beas River for August 24, 25 and 26. There was no rain forecast in the catchment area of Ranjit Sagar Dam in Pathankot district.However, on August 24, 25 and 26, the weather system shifted to Chamba and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, Pathankot in Punjab and Kathua and Samba districts in Jammu and Kashmir.Notably, on August 24, the actual rainfall in the Ranjit Sagar dam catchment area was 163 mm, whereas the IMD had predicted 21 mm rain.Similarly, on August 25, the actual rainfall was 147 mm but IMD’s forecast was 18 mm rainfall. By August 27, when Ravi had already flooded the entire Majha region, the actual rainfall was 90.5 mm while the IMD’s prediction was 5 mm.It is pertinent to mention here that the gross storage capacity of Ranjit Sagar dam project is 2.659 maf (million acre feet), while that of Shahpur Kandi dam project is 3.68% of the Ranjit Sagar dam. The Madhopur Headworks, situated 23 kilometres upstream in Pathankot district, carries the diverted water into the Upper Bari Doab Canal for irrigation purposes.A Punjab government official said, “We have written to the IMD officials to advance their system as delayed weather prediction became a major reason for flood fury in the Ravi river. Unprecedented rainfall coupled with an unexpected weather system adversely impacted the regulation of release from Ranjit Sagar dam, hence severely impacting the situation of flooding downstream in Punjab.”The department of water resources, Punjab government, has also written to the director general of meteorology, IMD, New Delhi, to upgrade and strengthen its weather forecasting, particularly for the dam catchment areas for greater accuracy. “This is essential to facilitate timely and effective planning for water regulation and release from dams and to avoid any potential downstream impacts,” principal secretary Krishan Kumar wrote in his letter.‘Punjab facing losses but Union govt not releasing relief funds’Goyal, Punjab’s water resources minister, told The Wire that it is a pity that despite bearing such a massive loss, and visits by central teams, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended in only a meagre grant of Rs 1,600 crore to Punjab.“We demanded a special grant of Rs 20,000 crore from the Modi government which they should release with immediate effect. The central agencies have accessed the ground report. It is for the first time that Punjab has witnessed such a huge loss,” he said.He said that the floods in Ravi river were not because of the discharge from the Ranjit Sagar dam but from the huge flow from unregulated water channels of Pakistan, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir. “The Ranjit Sagar dam’s discharge was 2.15 lakh cusecs. Further, Ravi River also never received an unprecedented flow of water. It is the unregulated local rivulets that compounded the floods,” he added.Goyal maintained that the amount of water in Ravi during the 1988 floods was 11.21 lakh cusecs whereas it was 14.11 lakh cusecs in 2025. “This time, Ravi received 20% excess water because of the unregulated rivulets,” he said.On the Madhopur Headworks floodgates fiasco, Goyal told The Wire, “We have marked an inquiry against guilty officials and strict action would be taken.”It is for this reason that the Punjab government has issued a show cause notice to Level 9 Biz Private Limited. When asked if the Punjab government would raise the demand with the Union government to construct a dam at Ujh river, the minister said, “The Union government is not releasing a special flood relief package for Punjab. Do you think they will dole out crores to construct a dam?”“We are in a federal structure but the Union government is running away from its constitutional responsibility,” he said.Goyal also lashed out at Union agriculture minister Chouhan for his statement that illegal mining was responsible for Punjab floods. “If that is the case, then what is the reason behind floods in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Himachal Pradesh? The Union government is not serious about helping Punjab,” he said.He maintained that mining was not allowed in the Ravi riverbed because of its proximity to the Indo-Pak border. He added that mining is allowed only in the Sutlej riverbed and that too is done as per laid down norms.Remedial measures required to mitigate flood lossesA Punjab government official told The Wire that as part of immediate measures, their teams visited the local nullah, khuds, rivulets from Jammu to Pathankot to check which water channels became the major reason for overflow of Ravi river and study its impact on Punjab.“At certain places, like Sukhal Khad in Jammu, the level of water was above 1 lakh cusecs, which was enormous given its length and water carrying capacity. Similarly, in Pathankot the Ujh river flowed beyond its capacity. Nearly every rivulet, tributary and nallah besides the Ravi River flowed at full spate causing massive damage, slope, and erosion everywhere,” he said.“We are also considering planting bamboo porcupines to stop embankment erosion. This initiative has been taken in many flood affected regions of the country,” he said, adding that they were also raising the level and width of the embankments.The official shared that the Central Water Commission of India (CWC) was also trying to find a new model to control the flow of excess water, floods and mitigate the losses.To a query about the century-old proposal to construct a dam at Ujh river, a tributary of Ravi in Kathua, Jammu, under the Ujh multipurpose project, as one of the measures to control floods in Punjab, an official from the Punjab Water Resources department said, “We would be writing shortly to the Union government to reconsider this option. The volume of water that flowed from the Ujh River during the floods needs to be shifted.”However, he stated that even if a dam is constructed on Ujh river, the main issue would still be the lack of storage for the excess rainwater.Stating that climate change was no more a hypothetical subject but a harsh reality, he said that there was a need to bring the top minds of the world together to study the impact of climate change, storage, and control of excess water in dams as Punjab lies in the Indus River Basin.In terms of the flood patterns in Punjab, a government official said that from 2019, 2023 and 2025, the frequency and intensity of the floods were increasing. “It is high time for the alarm bells to be rung,” he said.Talking about the Madhopur barrage fiasco in Pathankot, he said, “We have sought an explanation from the erring officials. An expert committee of the Punjab government would investigate the lapses.”Whoever is responsible for floods in Ravi river should be questioned: ex-chief engineerSpeaking to The Wire, former Punjab chief engineer (canals) Amarjeet Singh Dullet said that the common perception among people that Punjab floods were man-made was correct up to an extent. Around 70% of Punjab’s floods were man-made while the rest was because of the heavy rainfall and overflowing rivulets, he said.In the case of Madhopur Headworks, where two floodgates collapsed, Dullet said that it was total negligence on the part of the regulation staff which led to this fiasco. “The floodgates did not collapse even during the worst floods of 1988. It clearly shows that the floodgates were not maintained, repaired and opened on time. If you do not open the flood gates and operate them, it will get damaged,” he said.Dullet also said that the dam staff operate the dam according to Rule Curve, which is a set of guidelines to store and release dam water.“Rule Curve is very important for dam management. It appears that the regulation staff of Ranjit Sagar Dam kept sticking to the Rule Curve only,” he said, underscoring that the staff stuck to the prescribed limits without looking into the need to reconsider the control and flow of the water during heavy rainfall.“It was the responsibility of the regulation staff to check the inflow and ‘timely’ release of water, which they failed to do. They should have avoided flooding and could have controlled the damage,” he added.“The Punjab government should take action against such officials who failed to assess the situation and act on time,” Dullet added.