Gurdaspur/Amritsar: Tractor-trolleys that a few years ago rolled into Delhi’s border, becoming a symbol of the 2020-21 farmers’ protest, have now become the lifeline in Punjab flood relief efforts.
Triggered on 20 August by heavy monsoon rain, the floodwater is slowly receding, and rescue and rehabilitation work is now picking up pace.
Through the submerged roads, the tractor-trolleys—driven by villagers and youth from all across Punjab and loaded with rations—make several trips a day, ferrying families to safety and delivering food, water, clothing, and other essentials to stranded villages.
Not only that, locals, showing ingenuity and enterprise, are working to manufacture as many boats as possible. These boats are carrying supplies across flooded stretches and bringing the homeless to higher ground.
In Kapurthala, Hanspal Traders, a factory that makes railway coach components, has turned its floor into a boat-making workshop. Locals armed with electric welding guns are busy making the arc or assembling the boat at the Hanspal factory. In the absence of motors, they are making boats for manual use.
The company first built boats during last year’s floods. This year, as soon as the waters rose again, owners Pritpal Singh Hanspal and Devinder Pal Singh Hanspal began receiving calls from across Punjab for boats.
“This is how we are helping flood-affected people…. We have made our design public, and we are not doing this for profit. We only want to help people in this tough time,” said Pritpal Singh.
“The crisis has brought the power of community-driven initiatives to the fore. This is what Chardi Kalan (a Sikh concept of resilience in crisis) is all about,” said Rash Pal Singh, a medical health official at Amritsar’s Ramdas, who has set up a medical camp near Jatta Pind.
In Punjab, he said, people today are not waiting for government help but lending whatever support they can.
“It comes from our tradition. This is the real Punjab, where people cannot see those in grief without extending a hand. Whenever people are suffering, people from the community come forward to help. This time, the crisis goes deep and is more intense, so large numbers of people have come for help,” Singh said.
Punjab is battling its worst floods in decades, with over 3.8 lakh people across all 23 districts impacted. The rivers flowing through Punjab—Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej—are overflowing and have swamped villages across districts, including Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Pathankot, Ferozepur and Fazilka.
The flood has left the fields flooded, erased the roads, and washed away houses, leaving people homeless across 1,900 villages. More than 40 people have lost their lives.
On the route from Amritsar to Gurdaspur, locals and NGOs from across the country are providing relief materials for distribution. Most of the people coming with relief are the youth.
District administrations are responding swiftly, with rescue operations reaching completion through coordinated planning and execution by these different stakeholders.
“If only the government had been responsible for everything, the rescue and relief work would not have proceeded so quickly. People are coming together at the community level, which is why people are getting help quickly,” said Singh, while delivering medicines for the treatment of skin disease, fever, and stomach upsets, as well as sanitary pads to villagers from his help desk.
Jagseer Singh, accompanied by more than 10 others from Punjab’s Moga district, drove roughly 150 km in his tractor, a figurine of the local deity dangling from the rearview mirror on the windshield, with medical aid.
“Lakhs of people have been affected by the flood. At the same time, cattle are also affected. So, we came with three trolleys of tudi (fodder). No animal should remain hungry in these difficult times,” said Singh.
Like Singh, hundreds of others have come with trolleys and tractors for distributing biscuits, water bottles, rations, soaps, Odomos, ORS, and other essential items. The vehicles carry posters on their bodies, saying Baadh Rahat Samagri (flood relief item).
Some tractor-trolleys double as mobile music stations, blaring Punjabi songs as they move through villages.
Gurdwaras have also opened their doors, turning into relief hubs. From their kitchens, food is dispatched to affected areas. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, along with several Sikh groups, has set up langars in various places.
“No one should remain hungry. We are trying to give as much help as possible,” said 26-year-old Manjit Singh, who came from Bathinda with his friends.
Not only common people and district administrations, but also Bollywood celebrities and national players are on the ground. From Punjabi rappers Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla, singers Jasbir Jassi and Satinder Sartaj, to actor-singer Gippy Grewal have come forward to offer their sewa (help) amid the Punjab flood.
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Deployment of drones & doctors amid Punjab flood
While affected people are angry that the administration is not helping them, district officials say they are focused on repairing washed-away roads and rescuing those still trapped.
Once viewed largely as tools for cross-border smuggling, drones are now emerging as messengers of hope in flood-hit Punjab. In Amritsar, they are being deployed to ferry rations and medicines to marooned villagers, turning the technology into lifelines of relief.
The initiative was rolled out under the leadership of Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney and Senior Superintendent of Police Maninder Singh, who envisioned the use of drones as part of ongoing rescue and relief operations during the Punjab floods of 2025.
Officials said the aerial delivery of essentials has proved critical in reaching villages cut off by water, where conventional transport remains difficult.
On Friday afternoon, Amritsar DC Sakshi Sawhney visited the Dhussi embankment in Ajnala tehsil, which was washed away a few days ago. She told officials to speed up embankment work to restore connectivity. As she was instructing them, locals surrounded her, and one of them thanked her for visiting.
“Ye mera farz hai baba ji. Hum sab milkar kaam kar rahe hai (This is my duty. We are all working together),” Sawhney replied.
Since the floods began, the Amritsar DC has led rescue operations. Her videos with affected people are widely shared.
Sixteen relief camps are running in Amritsar, providing essential supplies.
Veterinary doctors and animal husbandry officials are visiting villages to check rescued cattle. Haroon Ratan, joint director of Punjab’s animal husbandry department, visited Ramdas Friday.
“When the water starts receding, many waterborne diseases could spread. Cattle are the most vulnerable. We are ready to tackle this,” he said.
Jaspinder Singh, SDM of Dinanagar—among the worst-hit—told ThePrint that officials stayed overnight in villages like Makoda to conduct rescues. He recalled how the Ravi rose so high it submerged the area.
“The rescue was challenging as not everybody wanted to leave their homes,” he said.
In Dinanagar, Singh said, they created five clusters where the NDRF, Army, and NGOs like Global Sikh were deployed.
“Each cluster has five officers for relief and rescue. One of our Olympic medalists, Rupinder Pal Singh, a PCS officer, is on the ground,” he added.
Initially, they distributed ready-to-eat food.
“Now we are giving rations, tarpaulins, and fodder. Our work is on track as we have no casualties in Dinanagar,” Singh said, adding the Red Cross and local industries are also helping.
The challenge, he said, is starting girdawari or loss assessment, with fields still inundated. “We will start once the water recedes. The focus currently is relief and rescue.”
Alongside local officials, National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF), Army, and Border Security Force (BSF) are involved.
The Punjab government has declared the state disaster-affected under the Disaster Management Act and ordered all educational institutions shut until September 7.
On September 5, the BSF held medical drives across flood-hit border belts, setting up camps in Ajnala, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, and Fazilka.
“In total, 1,098 men, women, and children received urgent medical relief,” a senior BSF official said.
Villagers are demanding immediate crop compensation. “The government should immediately start the process,” Harjeet Singh of Jatta village told ThePrint.
On Friday, under the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugraha), flood-affected people protested outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office.
Meanwhile, Fazilka resident Shubham filed a Public Interest Litigation for court intervention in relief work, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court refused to entertain it.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)