How Do We Exit Cycle of Floods & Death?

HE cycles of extreme climate, alternating between floods and drought, is getting worse by the year, and there are no answers.

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This year, more than half the country is reeling from floods. Punjab is facing its worst deluge since 1988. Haryana, Rajasthan, and the hill states of Himachal and Uttarakhand have seen cloudbursts, and entire towns being wiped out.

In neighboring Pakistan, the north-west has suffered far worse, with millions displaced and over 1,000 lives lost. It is not a pretty picture. Across Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana, the combined death toll has reached 500 as of September 4, 2025. Himachal is the worst with 355 deaths. In the northeast, relentless rains in June have claimed 30 lives.

Every year the location and toll numbers change. Otherwise, the destruction of lives, crops and human habitation continues with sickening repetition. Somehow our planners and government departments have never really digested the old adage of geographer Gilbert F White, who noted in 1942, "Floods are 'acts of God', but flood losses are largely acts of man."

Upstream water

Punjab is facing its worst floods since 1988 with nearly 2,000 villages submerged, 4 lakh acres of farm lands devastated and nearly 3.9 lakh people across 9 districts having to migrate to relief spots.

Environmental platform 'Mongabay' has documented the extent and reasons for the damage. Punjab's affected villages mainly lie along the river Ravi and lower reaches of the Beas and Sutlej. The waters swelled to unmanageable proportions due to incessant rains in upstream areas in Himachal, which has received as much as 46% above-normal rainfall till 8 September. The situation worsened with the lower catchment areas in Punjab too receiving 55% excess rain.