CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government has decided to geo-fence all 850 major water bodies in the state, alongside digital elevation modelling of rivers and canals to improve future flood management. This move comes after the devastating floods due to the swollen Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers besides the seasonal rivulets submerging villages and breaching embankments following heavy rainfall in their catchment areas across Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
This time, it was the Ravi river that unleashed the greatest fury, recording its highest-ever water flow of 14.11 lakh cusecs and causing 42 breaches in its embankments.
According to sources in the water resources department, the process of notifying major rivers and water bodies began after the 2023 floods, and nearly all 850 have now been notified. With geo-fencing, any construction within 150 metres of these notified drains will require a no-objection certificate from the department. To strengthen planning, KML files of these drains will also be integrated with the town and country planning department, helping it identify “no-construction zones.”
The department has also procured three drones to assist in digital elevation modelling of rivers and canals through aerial surveys, which will provide detailed data on terrain and topography.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed with the Survey of India to carry out this project within a year. Officials said the modelling will be critical for future river management and planning.
A senior officer noted that, for the first time, jumbo bags measuring 3.25 feet were used to plug breaches during the floods. Across the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers, along with canals, there were around 45 breaches—42 of them in the Ravi alone.
The recent floods hit the border districts of Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka the hardest, with water gushing from the Ranjit Sagar Dam on the Ravi river.
On August 25, the dam’s water level touched its maximum permissible height of 527.91 metres, rising further to 528.008 metres the next day before the gates were opened. The dam saw an inflow of 2.25 lakh cusecs and an outflow of 2.15 lakh cusecs. But during the intervening night of August 26–27, the discharge spiked to 14.11 lakh cusecs at Dharamkot, exceeding the safe gauge level by 2.5 feet.
At the Madhopur barrage downstream, water flow touched 2.22 lakh cusecs, far above the Ravi’s safe carrying capacity. The pressure caused two gates of the barrage to break. The situation worsened when the swollen Ujh river, carrying 2.06 lakh cusecs, joined the Ravi in Gurdaspur, amplifying the flood surge.
The 14.11 lakh cusecs was the highest ever discharge recorded in the Ravi, surpassing the previous peak of 11.2 lakh cusecs in 1988. The river’s safe carrying capacity is 9.7 lakh cusecs, but this time it received 4.41 lakh cusecs in excess. In total, over 11.9 lakh cusecs of unregulated water flowed in from smaller channels.
The state government has since written to the IMD director general, urging stronger weather forecasting systems for dam catchment areas, citing “inaccurate predictions” during the floods.
Officials defended the release from Ranjit Sagar Dam, stressing that dam safety was of utmost importance given the unprecedented inflows.
In contrast, the Bhakra Nangal and Pong dams managed by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) released water in a controlled manner. At Pong, inflows peaked at 2.59 lakh cusecs on August 26, but outflow was capped at 85,000 cusecs by storing water up to four feet above the permissible level of 1,390 feet.
The Beas embankments held firm despite historic inflows of 11.70 billion cubic metres, the highest ever recorded. At Bhakra, the reservoir did not touch its maximum level, and the Sutlej river largely stayed within its carrying limits, except for minor erosion.