En masse devastation: Livestock falls prey to monsoon flooding

South Punjab’s cattle have been ravaged by lumpy skin disease, torrential rains in past two months

LAHORE:

This year’s monsoon flooding has not only upended lives of the people but of their livestock animals as well, with some having to choose saving themselves instead of their cattle.

In South Punjab, the torrential downpours have caused similar levels of destruction that have been witnessed in Balochistan, as families have been forced to leave their belongings and farm animals behind to seek shelter. In particular, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, and Muzaffargarh have borne the brunt of the fooding related devastation. According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), in South Punjab, 555,930 acres of land, out of which 210,965 acres was cultivated land, have been damaged.

In addition, 6,000 houses have sustained total damage, while 6,391 houses have suffered partial damage. Meanwhile, 43 people have died and 6 have been injured.

However, those numbers are pale in comparison to the loss of around 2,000 small and large cattle during the past two months, due to a mixture of monsoon flooding and lumpy skin disease (LSD), as per the authority.

A resident of the suburbs of Muzaffargarh, Abdul Rahman, while talking about the difficulties people of South Punjab have faced, said that the losses were irrecoverable. “Most of our villages are located near the Indus and Chenab rivers, therefore the flooding wreaked havoc on us,” he lamented, adding that their livestock had it even worse.

Rahman informed that the cattle in this part of the province were already dying because of LSD and the flooding took the remainder. “I lost 11 animals myself. All of my savings were used to buy the livestock and now everything is gone,” a visibly distraught Rahman said.

Others like Rahman, from all over the South of Punjab, whilst regretting the loss of their belongings, cattle, and crops, complained that they “suffer every time there is a flood because of governmental institutions’ ineptitude.”

However, it seems that their suffering might not be over yet as the Meteorological Department has predicted that an intense monsoon spell is likely to continue for the upcoming week. Forecasts suggest that Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan could receive moderate rain with thunderstorms.

Additionally, mild to severe flooding is expected in the Chenab River at the location of Head Marala, Khanki, and Qadirabad and floods of a medium to high level are also anticipated in the Ravi and Chenab drains.

Furthemore, there is a prediction of major floods in Mianwali district’s rivers and drains and in Dera Ghazi Khan Division’s hilly regions.

Spokesperson of Punjab Livestock, Dr Asif Rafiq, when asked what additional measures would be taken to protect people’s livestock given that further flooding was being predicted, said that they were doing their best to save the animals.

“While other departments have been occupied in rescuing the lives of people, we have saved more than 500 animals from the floods by relocating them,” Dr Rafiq told The Express Tribune.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2022.