Between shelling and floods, Jammu's border villages plead for safer future

Pallanwala/Jammu (JK): Jammu’s border villages, which have long been terrorised by cross-border shelling, are braving an even more serious threat today as flash floods caused by unprecedented monsoon rains have left their homes broken, farmlands ruined and their futures uncertain.

The villagers in Pallanwala sector and R S Pura live a life of fear and loss, pleading for relocation, relief and a future where their children can grow without bullets or water sweeping away their homes.

In Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control (LoC), flash floods caused because of the swollen Chenab on August 26 submerged villages up to the first floor of houses, washed away roads and livestock, and displaced more than 3,000 to 4,000 people.

“We have floods every year, but this time it was the worst. I have not seen such devastation in my lifetime – it inundated every area here along the LoC. Thank God we are alive,” said 71-year-old Santok Singh of Gigrial, whose family was evacuated by soldiers.

“Me and my family were rescued by Army personnel. It feels like a second life. Everything has been damaged – from homes to livelihoods and farmlands,” he said.

The people of this area have lived through the terror of mortar shelling and relentless machine gun fire from across the border in 1999, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2016, 2019, and most recently in 2023. They were forced to flee their homes and take shelter in camps at Devigarh and Paranwala schools for periods ranging from one month to six months.

Villagers of Pallanwala also braved devastating floods sweeping through their lands in 1984, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2014, and even now, which forced evacuation by the armed forces, who saved their lives and housed them in shelter camps in schools. With a population of more than 5000 people, Pallanwala-Khour belt is located in a bowl between river Chenab and Munawar Tawi.

Tehsildar Khour Ranjeet Singh said that more than 300 homes have been damaged and twenty – including Gigrial, Hamipur, Naibasti Naraina, Pallanwala, Dhar Channi, Palatan, Mollu, Sajwal Kulle, Chani, Nai Basti, Rangpur, and Pindi along the LoC in this sector – have been affected in floods. He informed that three to four shelter camps in schools and other places have been set up for providing food.

“The situation of living here is like being caught between the devil and the deep sea. On one side we face Pakistani aggression, on the other, the Chenab devastates our homes,” added villager Surender Kumar, who was evacuated with his family of nine and housed in a shelter camp at a school.

Locals recall that only in 1984 and 1992 had such intensity of floods been witnessed. This time, water levels surged beyond evacuatio, submerging villages up to the first floor of houses and sweeping away roads, bridges, livestock, and farmlands.

“Within minutes, the floods turned the village into a lake. Houses were submerged up to the first storey. If our forces had not come to our rescue, we thought we would be washed away,” Kumar added.

The people of this border belt are now strongly advocating a permanent solution to their age-old problem of becoming sitting ducks between floods and firing, demanding permanent rehabilitation at safer places.

“For years, we have been demanding relocation of our villages to safer places, but successive governments have turned a blind eye to our plight and the trauma we face every year,” said Yudhvir, who lost his kin in Pakistani shelling in 1999 when a dozen houses were damaged.

A teacher, Bhishan Chand, who took shelter along with his family on the roof of a house for a few hours before being evacuated by army through boats said, “There is only one demand from us. We should get plots of 5 to 10 marlas of land at safer places where this village can be relocated and rehabilitated." He further urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to address the age-old demand for rehabilitation so future generations do not suffer.

Villages remain cut off from the district as roads have been washed away, forcing people to cross flood channels and use boats to reach their homes.

“There is no water and power supply to the areas as efforts are being made by the administration to restore them due to huge infrastructure damage,” a villager Garima Devi said.

Kulwant Singh, a farmer, said “my entire paddy field is under water. We are dependent on agriculture. This year, we have been badly hit. The government has to come to rescue to give us a package.” In Nandwal village of R S Pura, where prized Basmati rice grows, farmers said the August deluge turned fertile fields into wasteland. “We had Basmati all around here. Now, this has turned into a desert,” said 65-year-old Naresh Kumar, recalling that the devastation was worse than the 2010 and 2014 floods.

Another villager Sudhakar Singh said the widespread damage to the agricultural sector has left them with nothing and requested the administration's help.

"The primary resource for most of the villagers is the paddy crop, which is destroyed," said villager, Vinay Kumar, who hoped for government compensation to enable them to start afresh.

Residents have also called for stronger embankments to be erected on the nearby Tawi river to avert future accidents.

"We wish for the government to dispatch special teams of agriculture experts to instruct us on how to prepare our land," said resident Kamlesh Kumar.

In response to the crisis, local BJP MLA Narinder Raina announced that the party's 28 MLAs would contribute Rs 1 crore and two MPs would contribute Rs 2.5 crore from their constituency development funds to the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) to aid the affected population.

"The 28 BJP MLAs will contribute Rs one crore and two party's MPs Rs two and a half-core from their constituency development fund to the SDRF so that the money is spent on the welfare of the flood-hit population," he said.