Naseeb Singh, 28, who farms over 17 acres of land in a village near Dera Baba Nanak town in Gurdaspur, came across a strange problem when he inspected his farm following the recent floods — nearly two acres of his field had turned into a pit full of floodwater and the rest was covered with silt.
Standing next to a broken embankment on his farmland near the India-Pakistan border, Mr. Naseeb said, “The bandh (embankment) broke at night, and the force with which the water gushed in created this pit, which is about 30-40 feet deep. The rest of my field was covered under over five feet of silt. We have been working to clear it for the past two weeks.”
The farmer estimates his losses at over ₹50 lakh. “I have no idea how to pay back my loans amounting to ₹10 lakh,” he said.
In August and September, P
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