Crop grown over 4,000 hectares damaged in Punjab in floods

Crops grown over about 4,000 hectares in Punjab have been completely destroyed in the floods, a Punjab Agriculture department official said here on Thursday.

Besides, crops on 24,112 hectares of land got submerged in 561 villages of 13 districts, he added.

Maximum damage was witnessed in Rupnagar, the downstream district of Sutlej river, where crops on 1,715 hectares of land out of a total 4,000 hectares were completely destroyed in the deluge, the official said.

The crop was also damaged in Moga (1,688 hectares), Ludhiana (220 hectares), Mohali (100 hectares), SBS Nagar (56 hectares), Sangrur (140 hectares) and Amritsar (80 hectares), as per the crop loss report prepared by Punjab Agriculture Department.

Crops grown over more than 24,000 hectares of land were submerged in 13 districts -- upnagar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Moga, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali, Patiala, SBS Nagar, Sangrur and Amritsar, as per the report.

The excess release of water from Bhakra dam in Sutlej river that caused breaches in river and distributaries damaged the Kharif crop in the state, the report pointed out.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has already said special 'girdawri' (crop loss assessment) would be conducted once the water recedes in affected areas.

Notably, following recent heavy rains and the release of excess water from Bhakra dam, swollen Sutlej river and its tributaries had inundated villages in several areas in Punjab, causing extensive damage to crops, especially paddy, and homes in low-lying areas.