E-Paper
2025 floods: Punjab flags Bhakra, Pong reservoir mgmt before NGT
State raises concerns over shrinking storage capacity, rigid rule curves and downstream river capacity
Prefer HTon Google
Punjab has raised concerns before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over the management of the Bhakra and Pong reservoirs, arguing that shrinking storage capacity, rigid reservoir rule curves, inadequate assessment of downstream river capacity and poor coordination of inflows and releases may have worsened the state’s flood crisis in 2025.
The submission was made in an affidavit filed by principal secretary, water resources, Krishan Kumar, on September 8, in response to a petition filed by the Public Action Committee before the NGT in September last year against the water resources department and the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).
Punjab has argued that the flood-management debate cannot be confined to excessive rainfall and must also examine how reservoirs are operated, maintained and how their water releases are coordinated with downstream rivers and drainage systems. In August last year, floods affected more than 2,400 villages and damaged crops over nearly two lakh hectares in the state.
Dams losing storage to silt
Punjab has flagged the progressive loss of storage capacity at the Bhakra and Pong reservoirs because of sediment accumulation. According to the state’s assessment, by the end of 2024, Bhakra’s gross storage capacity had declined by 26.14% and live-storage capacity by 19.10%, while Pong’s gross capacity had fallen by 13.92% and live storage by 11.96%.
Despite the reported reduction in capacity, Punjab has pointed out that the BBMB has not undertaken any desilting work at either reservoir. The state has argued that scientific desilting could potentially restore part of the lost capacity without raising the existing Full Reservoir Level, thereby creating additional storage cushion to absorb sudden and extreme inflows.
The issue assumes significance because reduced storage leaves reservoirs with less flexibility during intense rainfall. Punjab has therefore questioned the sustainability of relying on historical storage assumptions when sedimentation is steadily reducing the available storage.
BBMB Secretary ML Sharma said he was not an expert on flood management and declined to comment on the issue.
However, BBMB chairman Manoj Tripathi had last year blamed the Punjab government for worsening the flood crisis, alleging that it had failed to undertake timely desilting of rivers and canals and strengthen embankments.
Addressing the media on September 6, 2025, Tripathi said that while the floods were largely unavoidable due to record-breaking water inflows into the Bhakra and Pong dams, the damage could have been mitigated if the state had maintained its water infrastructure more effectively.
“The situation could have been averted from turning worse had the Punjab government managed the water courses – rivers and canals – through timely desilting and strengthening of embankments,” he said.
Rule curves under scrutiny
The state has also raised objections to the proposed rule curves for Bhakra and Pong, arguing that reservoir operations cannot be governed too rigidly during volatile monsoon conditions.
A rule curve (or guide curve) is a pre-set operational guideline or target graph that specifies the safe water storage levels or empty buffer space to maintain in a reservoir at different times throughout the year.
Punjab has sought greater flexibility in the upper rule levels during critical periods of the monsoon, saying reservoir levels should be adjusted according to actual inflow patterns and forecasts. It has also pointed to discrepancies in the proposed rule levels and noted that the rule curves have not yet been formally approved by the BBMB board.
The state has stressed that strict adherence to predetermined curves can become impractical when rainfall and inflows deviate sharply from forecasts. It has called for flexible reservoir-operation schedules supported by adequate stream-flow forecasting systems.
‘River capacity cannot be ignored’
A major concern raised before the NGT is whether the carrying capacity of the Sutlej and Beas downstream of the dams has been adequately factored into reservoir operations.
Punjab has pointed out that several local khads and rivulets feed these rivers downstream of Bhakra and Pong. It has specifically referred to Sohan Khad and Chakki Khad in the Beas basin, besides numerous streams entering the Sutlej between Nangal, Ropar and Harike.
The state’s argument is that dam releases cannot be assessed in isolation. If large reservoir releases coincide with heavy local rainfall and tributary inflows, downstream rivers may face flows beyond their carrying capacity, potentially worsening inundation.
2025 floods exposed vulnerabilities
Punjab has linked these reservoir-management concerns to the extensive flooding witnessed in August 2025, saying the experience demonstrated the need to move away from conventional forecasting and adopt real-time reservoir monitoring and inflow prediction.
The state grappled with its worst floods in four decades in 2025, with heavy monsoon rainfall and releases from the Pong, Bhakra and Ranjit Sagar dams inundating more than 2,000 villages and affecting over 3.84 lakh people. At least 43 people died, while crops on nearly two lakh hectares were damaged.
The government has attributed the severity of the situation to exceptionally heavy and poorly forecast rainfall across the region, including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. It has also cited episodes of extremely high inflows into the river and reservoir systems.
The state has argued that it has repeatedly sought installation of Real Time Data Acquisition Systems (RTDAS) at reservoirs to enable quicker and more informed decisions during extreme weather events.
