The 2025 monsoon has pushed Punjab’s emergency services to the brink, as record rainfall has caused rivers like the Beas to swell and localities across Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, and Tarn Taran to face inundation. With the Indian Meteorological Department’s yellow alert in effect, the specter of disaster hangs heavy over low-lying districts, where homes have been flooded and daily routines upended.
Perhaps most dramatically, the Pathankot-Dalhousie-Chamba national highway was swept away in segments, isolating regions vital for commerce and community movement. The Pong Dam authorities, in a rare move, opened floodgates after the reservoir surpassed safe limits, triggering anxieties about downstream impact. State agencies and district disaster response teams are battling not just the immediate threat of floods, but the longer-term challenge of landslides and collapsing rural infrastructure.
Authorities have called for extraordinary caution among residents, reinforcing a public narrative that disaster preparedness and climate resilience must move from the margins to the center of governance. For a state historically dependent on the monsoon for agricultural prosperity, these scenes are a powerful reminder of both the bounty and unpredictability that seasonal rains bring.
Hashtags/Keywords: #PunjabFloods #MonsoonDisaster #ClimateResilience #EmergencyPreparedness #BeasRiver
