Once celebrated as the home to fertile alluvial soil, Punjab’s groundwater is now vanishing, its tree cover thinning, and soil turning toxic. The slow march of desertification has begun to engulf what was once bountiful land. Punjab’s rivers and water bodies have also suffered due to unchecked industrial pollution, ritualistic waste dumping, and government neglect. The Buddha Nallah, once a tributary of the Sutlej river, is a case in point – over the years, it has transformed into a toxic channel carrying the waste of Ludhiana’s dye and dairy industries. The river water turns from moderately polluted (Class B) to heavily polluted (Class E) in the course of traversing through Punjab, making it unfit for human consumption or agricultural use. Punjab has lost 1.4% of its forest cover between 2001 and 2023. Coupled with rapid groundwater depletion, today, around 1.68 lakh hectares of area is under land degradation and desertification. Several environmental experts and studies backed by the Central Ground Water Board and environmental monitoring agencies have warned that if current trends of deforestation, groundwater depletion, and soil degradation continue unchecked, Punjab could face desertification within the next 25 years.The confluence point where Buddha Dariya and a tributary carrying Ludhiana’s toxic industrial waste merge into the Sutlej River. Photo: Water Warriors Punjab.For Samita Kaur, a 51-year-old environmentalist from Doraha in Ludhiana, there is no time like now to act on this situation.Kaur is the founder of the Vatrukh Foundation. Along with Manjit Singh, the founder of Water Warriors of Punjab, Kaur has launched an online campaign urging the government to implement the Tree Preservation Act in the state of Punjab.Kaur’s activism, which began during the farmers’ protest, grew through campaigns which opposed the Dadumajra landfill in Chandigarh and defended the Mattewara forest, her letter on which was read in the Punjab assembly by Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. She established the Vatrukh Foundation in 2025. ‘Vat’ is from vatavaran (environment) and ‘rukh’ is ‘trees’ in Punjabi.Vatrukh has launched a village-to-village campaign across Punjab, encouraging the plantation of 500 native saplings in every village, an effort to envision over 62 lakh trees across the state. The Water Warriors, led by Manjit Singh, also embodies a rare kind of courage. Once an assistant professor, Singh left his academic post in a reputed college to dedicate his life to reviving Punjab’s dying rivers. In an age when we often hear that Punjab’s youth are leaving the country, Singh’s young volunteers are proving otherwise, cleaning the banks of the Sutlej and Beas, and planting hope where others see only decline. “When I saw people dumping waste into the Sutlej river, it shook me. I had to act,” says Singh. Thus began the Water Warriors’ mission to restore Punjab’s rivers and awaken a new consciousness among its people. The two organisations have teamed up to attempt to save Punjab from desertification by pressing for a proposed law.So what exactly is happening?Punjab is in the midst of an ecological emergency. According to the Indian State of Forest Report (2023), the state has lost 22% of its forest and tree cover over the past 22 years. The existing tree preservation policy is not enough to tackle the problem. It is little more than a symbolic gesture rather than a substantive solution.The policy claims that forest and tree cover stands at 5.92%, and sets an underwhelming target to increase it to 7.5% by 2030 through afforestation, agroforestry, and conservation. “As per the Indian State of Forest Report 2021, the actual tree cover in the state is only 3.67%. What will they achieve by raising it to 7%? The required standard is 33%. At this pace, Punjab will turn into a desert in ten years. 7% is not a plan, it’s greenwash,” says Samita Kaur. Youth volunteers taking part in an awareness drive against water pollution in Punjab. Photo: Water Warriors Punjab.Kaur noted that complaints related to deforestation often circulate endlessly within departments, with no dedicated appellate body to monitor, review, or hold violators accountable. Over the past four to five years, the environmentalists have watched the land in Punjab change, and not for the better. The soil is turning unnaturally white and the groundwater table is receding rapidly. These signs weren’t just warnings, they were cries for help, thought Kaur. “Something must be done, before it’s too late.”A tree BillIt took two years for Kaur and Manjit Singh to draft a Punjab Preservation of Trees Bill, 2025. There are 12 Indian states which already have a Tree Preservation Act and the proposed draft draws on examples from five of them. The draft of the proposed Bill has already been submitted to the chief minister, the Speaker, the leader of the opposition, MLAs, and the chief secretary.“Turning policy into an Act means crossing several gates – bureaucracy, legislation, debate in the Vidhan Sabha, tabling of the bill, and finally, its passage,” Kaur said.Drawing from successful models like the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (1994) and the Chandigarh Tree Preservation Order (2000), the proposed Bills sets a comprehensive framework for tree protection, regulation of felling, afforestation, and citizen participation. The draft Bill seeks to address the rapidly declining green cover by placing ecological preservation at the centre of policy action.During her conversation with The Wire, Kaur questions the illusion of progress. “If trees are actually being planted, then why don’t we see them grow?” she asks. For her, the answer lies in geo-sensing and geo-tagging – a way to track plantations and ensure transparency. “Today, we award carbon credits to NGOs and industries but what about our farmers? The ones demanding MSP, the ones willing to diversify, why are they left out?”The team of Water Warriors Punjab planting saplings along the banks of the Sutlej River. Photograph by Water Warriors Punjab.Key provisions in the proposed tree Bill thus include the mandatory appointment of Tree Officers and Tree Protection Committee at state, district, and municipal levels. No tree, whether on public or private land, can be felled without prior written permission, and compensatory afforestation must be carried out before any sanctioned cutting. Severe penalties are outlined: illegal felling may result in Rs. 50,000 in fines per tree, non-bailable arrest, and a minimum of 5 years imprisonment. Heritage trees (over 100 years old) are given additional protection with a mandated 50-meter no-development buffer zone. The draft Bill also mandates a 33% green cover allocation for all development projects and proposes a statewide annual tree census, enforcement through GIS mapping, and carbon credit compensation for farmers engaged in agroforestry. With its strategic vision to increase Punjab’s tree cover by 20%, the act transforms environmental preservation from a symbolic gesture into enforceable law, backed by accountability, incentives, and community participation.Kaur also pointed out that although Punjab receives grants for agroforestry under initiatives supported by UNEP and the World Bank, the implementation lacks urgency. “This needs to be treated like a mission on war footing, with door-to-door outreach and execution, not just confined to files and reports,” she emphasised.While reviewing existing laws like the Land Conservation Act and the Indian Forest Act, she realised that these legislations have never undergone substantial revision. “They remain outdated, with provisions rooted in colonial-era thinking, and are no longer aligned with the environmental realities we face today,” she said. Kaur noted that the Ravi river has been forced to flow upstream unnaturally. In general, she is against hurried river projects. “How can we talk about reducing AQI (Air Quality Index) when we’ve cut down thousands of trees for a single project like the Shahpur Kandi Dam?” she asked.What Punjab needs now is not policy promises, but legislative protection through acts like the one Kaur and the others are proposing.Damanjeet Kaur is a writer from Punjab. Kanwal Singh is a policy analyst and columnist.