India, Oct. 16 -- The floodwaters that swept across Punjab in late August, triggered by unusually heavy rains in the Himalayan region and the state's own torrential downpours, had begun to recede by the last week of September. What remains is a trail of devastation. Village after village bears the scars with fields smothered under layers of silt and sand, homes reduced to shells and farmers, once proud custodians of India's food bowl, now speaking of debt, hunger and uncertainty.

In just over a fortnight, more than 2,500 villages were submerged, affecting nearly 400,000 farmers, according to government data. The deluge destroyed crops on over 200,000 hectares (ha) of cultivable land, killed nearly 1,000 large animals and 35,000 poultry a...