Fresh Lease of Life for Flood-hit People

March 27, 2026

When floods washed away his family’s farmland in 1973, Hareshbhai Solanki thought he would never farm it again. Five decades later, he is harvesting his first crop in Rustampura village in Gujarat — the 33-year-old has spent the past week cutting tobacco from fields that lay barren for decades.

If all goes to plan, the harvest could bring in Rs 2.5-3 lakh, leaving him with a profit of around Rs 1 lakh from his 1.6-hectare farm.
For Solanki, the harvest holds meaning far beyond its monetary value, as the last time his family cultivated these fields was in 1973. Unprecedented rains in Thasra taluka of Kheda district were part of one of the most widespread and catastrophic flood events in the region. Solanki’s grandfather, Vitthalbhai, lost their farmland during those floods.

The destruction was part of the devastating 1973 floods in Gujarat’s Mahi river basin, caused by torrential rainfall between August 26 and September 9 that year. Entire stretches of farmland were eroded, and many families, including Solanki’s, lost their land.
Villages along the riverbanks also lost large areas of common land — used for grazing, collecting fuelwood and other daily needs.

A report by the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) in September 2023 titled Ravine Restoration Through Community Initiatives noted the widespread land degradation across villages along the Mahi basin. The river originates in southern Rajasthan and flows through districts including Panchmahals, Mahisagar, Vadodara, Kheda and Anand before draining into the Arabian Sea at the Gulf of Khambhat.

A preliminary survey by FES across 106 villages found that ravines had affected more than 17,992 hectares of both common and private land along a 120 kilometre stretch between Vanakbori in Mahisagar district and Dhuvaran in Anand district.
The sandy loam soil, combined with a lack of vegetation and repeated heavy rains, led to severe erosion. Over time, deep and continuous ravine gullies formed.

(Courtesy: DTE)