The Ravi returns to Lahore after four decades, reclaims lost land and hearts

The last time the river, considered the lifeline of Lahore in undivided Punjab, breached the international border was during the devastating 1988 Punjab floods.

While heavy monsoons or floods have, over the years, ensured that the Ravi’s flow into Pakistan was never cut off completely, the recent deluge saw nearly 30 km of the iron fencing along the India-Pakistan frontier getting washed away, leaving both sides of the zero line (the international boundary) flooded.

This monsoon that witnessed unprecedented rains, the river carried over 14 lakh cusecs of water, surpassing the 1988 record of 11 lakh cusecs, according to official data.

A screengrab showing an aerial view of the inundated Park View City Society in Lahore. (Image: Instagram/Aliarifofficial)

This time, Ravi’s fury submerged several towns and cities on both sides of the border — from Gurdaspur and Pathankot on the Indian side to Narowal, Sahiwal, Kasur and Lahore in Pakistan. The flood waters even entered the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan’s Narowal district, flooding large parts of the historic shrine, Guru Nanak’s final resting place.

In Lahore, the Ravi inundated several residential settlements that had come up over the years on its riverbed and floodplains. Residents from areas like Shahdara, Shafiqabad and Farrukhabad, and high-end neighbourhoods such as Park View City Society, The Metro City and The Theme Park were among those evacuated.

While the Park View City Society is owned by sitting Pakistani minister Aleem Khan, a report in Dawn, a Pakistani national daily, said that Pakistan’s Anti-Corruption Establishment had arrested the owner of Theme Park.

Pakistan’s Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) — tasked with leading a large-scale urban development and environmental restoration project along the Ravi’s riverbed and the surrounding floodplains in Lahore — has since declared all these residential societies “illegal”.

The Ravi in a spate in Lahore. (Image: Nadeem Ahmad)

Though its CEO Imran Amin claimed that no-objection certificates (NOCs) were never issued for construction on the riverbed, RUDA had in 2019 revealed its plans to build a “new city” along the riverbed, a project that was criticised by environmentalists.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Amin said, “Many of these flooded settlements were built decades ago and most of them are illegal encroachments on the riverbed. Mitigation measures to save the population are underway as it was a natural disaster. Law enforcement agencies will deal with illegal activities.”

But Lahore residents firmly believe Ravi has returned to do what authorities failed for decades- free her land from encroachers.

West Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif inspecting the flood situation in Ravi. (Image: Directorate General Public Relations, Punjab, Pakistan)

Dr Mazhar Abbas, Assistant Professor of History at Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan, says the Ravi came with a message. “You play with a river and it will play with you. The residents of Lahore believe that Ravi has returned to free her land from the encroachers. The authorities failed to get them vacated but now Ravi herself has done the job,” he says.

India to Pakistan: A river’s journey

Originating from Himachal Pradesh’s Bara Bhangal region, the Ravi enters Punjab through the Chamba Valley. Flowing through Punjab’s Pathankot, Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, it enters Pakistan’s Punjab province via Narowal, before moving towards Lahore and finally merging with the Chenab.

The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty allotted the Ravi, along with the Sutlej and the Beas, to India, while Pakistan was given control of the three western rivers of Jhelum, Chenab and Indus. India diverted the Ravi’s course with the construction of the Ranjit Sagar Dam and the Shahpurkandi Barrage, rendering most of its channel inside Pakistan dry.

Originating from Himachal Pradesh’s Bara Bhangal region, the Ravi enters Punjab through the Chamba Valley. (Illustration: Shijith P Kunhitty)

Over time, the riverbed in Lahore went dry, parched, heavily littered and the river was lost. Yet, it stayed on in the memories of the elderly, poets and songwriters, and inspiring Punjabi folk singers who sang ballads of the lost river, including one that went: ‘Ucchra burj Lahore da, ni aisan goriye; ohde heth vage Ravi dariya (The tall minaret of Lahore is so beautiful, like a tall fair-skinned girl/ The Ravi flows beneath it)’.

In 2019, Pakistani singer-songwriter Sajjad Ali released an emotional paean to Ravi: “Je Ravi vich paani koi nai, tey apni kahaani koi nai… (If there’s no water in the Ravi, there’s no story to tell…).”

Ali’s tribute has an “extended version” now. Welcoming the Ravi back to Lahore, Pakistani lyricist-composer Tehseen Ahmad’s version, now a sensation on social media in both countries, goes: “Eh Ravi paani-paani ho gai, tey puri ae kahani ho gai..Eh Ravi nu tu wagg lain de, tey dukh saare kadd lain de (The Ravi is now brimming with water and our story is now complete. Let Ravi flow, let her vent out all her pain).”

Known by its many other names, including Iravati and Parushni, the Ravi was a significant landmark in Lahore, besides serving as a major trade route during the Mughal era via Lahore Port.

Bridge night: The Ravi flowing under the Shahdara bridge in Lahore. (Image: Nadeem Ahmad)

When Mughal Emperor Akbar commissioned the Lahore Fort in the late 16th century, Ravi was a prominent geographical feature, with its waters flowing along the Fort. In the 17th century, when Aurangzeb commissioned the Badshahi Mosque, its waters offered a breathtaking view.

Historical records show that even during the Mughal period, the Ravi caused floods in Lahore. The tombs of Jahangir and Nur Jahan, located in Lahore’s Shahdara Bagh, have been repeatedly damaged in floods over the years.

After the devastating floods of 1662, Aurangzeb is known to have tried to change the Ravi’s course. His attempt to “control the river” by building a huge embankment called Alamgir Bundh to save Lahore from floods was largely unsuccessful. Later, the British too, fearing the Ravi’s rage, tried to control its flow by diverting it and constructing tree spurs to mitigate the floods.

None of these measures worked and the Ravi did what rivers did — it ebbed and flowed and flooded. Over the years, due to a gradual, natural shift in its course, it moved away from the Lahore Fort and the Old Walled City. The process was accelerated by human intervention, especially in the 20th century.

In Pakistan, Dr Mazhar Abbas, Assistant Professor of History at Government College University, Faisalabad, said the Ravi was considered sona (gold, due to its extremely fertile floodplains), Chenab chandi (silver) and Sindhu (Indus) swaah (ash).

Today, a bridge over the Ravi connects the two abodes of Guru Nanak across India and Pakistan, the first Sikh guru, in the two Punjabs — Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in lehnda (west) Punjab and Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak in charhda (east) Punjab.

A hand-painted scroll showing the Ravi flowing next to the walls of Lahore city, against the minarets of the Badshahi Mosque. (Image: The British Library Board)

A flow of memories 

While the Ravi’s flow has brought devastation in its wake on both sides of the border, for old-timers in Lahore, it was an occasion to relive cherished memories.

Khuram Shahzad, 40, whose childhood house was located near the river, recalled, “Back then, its waters were pristine and clear. Lahore residents would fly kites near Baradari (a Mughal structure on its banks).”

All of them agree that the current floods should serve as a warning against encroachments on the riverbed.

Activist Diep Saeeda of the Institute for Peace and Secular Studies in Lahore said even the tomb of Sir Ganga Ram, who is considered the Father of Modern Lahore, near the Ravi’s banks had been encroached upon.

“When Ravi returned this time, the elderly in the 70s or 80s were teary-eyed remembering their old times instead of seeing the tabaahi that floods caused,” she says.

Ludhiana-based Anirudh Kala, author of Unsafe Asylum, a book on the impact of Partition on the mental health of people, said, “There can’t be a louder message, or bigger irony. The river has washed away even the border fence. It is a message to both countries to be sensible and sensitive about its waters, and to preserve their ecology. Being the land of five rivers, Punjab — on both sides — is the most vulnerable to climate change.”

Talking about the river’s floodplains, encroached upon by the real estate mafia, Lahore-based Zeeshan Ahmed said, “Dariya wapas aa gaya hai apni jagah lene (the Ravi has reclaimed its riverbed). They thought Ravi was dead but the river has proved otherwise.”

Even RUDA is not completely in the clear. Established in 2019, the authority had announced its plans to build a “new city” on a 46-km stretch along the Ravi’s riverbed and the surrounding floodplains in Lahore, and “revive the dead river”. While that is yet to happen, the real estate mafia allegedly flourished and came up with their own illegal establishments.

Former Pakistan PM and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan had lent his weight to the project, saying the river was anyway shrinking and would “soon become a sewage drain”.

Calling the division of rivers “a sacrilege”, Gurmeet Sangha Rai, a Delhi-based heritage conservationist, architect and writer who originally belongs to Punjab, said, “Rivers are living systems that have nurtured civilisations. They are not divisible possessions. A river cannot be halved by its banks. But today, the Ravi finds itself fragmented by borders, canals and treaties. ”

Speaking to The Indian Express, Nuzhat Manto, the daughter of legendary writer Saadat Hasan Manto and a resident of Lahore, said, “Abhi bhi dono mulq… kudrat ko baksh dein (India-Pakistan must stop trying to take on nature).”