Bathinda, a major southern Punjab city, is a trade centre for agricultural products. It also has important military bases due to its proximity to the Pakistan border. Being adjacent to Rajasthan with its desert landscape, Bathinda has a semi-arid climate with scorching summers.
While there in August 2018, I experienced a constant day temperature of around 35 degrees.
Near Mittal Mall, on the Punjab Tourism welcome board, Bathinda boasts thermal power plants (now decommissioned due to their high carbon emissions and consequential adverse effects on people’s health), a rose garden and fertiliser production.
Although residents are warned against drinking the groundwater which has been heavily contaminated from untreated industrial waste, we passed boys happily swimming in a local river. Been warned previously against working in Bathinda because of the high pollution levels. Was reminded of this advice as the evidence was there on the outside surface of the windows in my room.
The major attraction in Bathinda is the magnificent fort, Qila Mubarak, in the heart of the Old City. Although the magnificent 6th century fort is one of the oldest in India, it has sadly been allowed to fall into a state of utter disrepair due to the lack of government funding and the apparent re-direction of state funds to the building of new sporting facilities. The Hindustan Times recently reported on this shameful neglect: The 1,500-year-old Bathinda or Gobindgarh Fort is crumbling to a slow death as authorities have failed to preserve it. https://www.hindustantimes.com/chandigarh/bathinda-s-gobindgarh-fort-crumbling-poses-threat-to-visitors/story-8S6CneBKbLtPhAE4VgMV5J.html The pile of used bricks in the shop being constructed nearby has probably been taken from the fort.
Images from my short stay in Bathinda. Goat herding in the local village of Gill Pratti, elders seated around their village water well; a packed bus on Mall Road; students in an auto-rickshaw; a couple of the sacred cows that wander anywhere without restriction on the highways; a budding Virat Kohli, a Sikh family photo, and a tailor shop with the workers enduring midday heat of 36 degrees with no air con.
Cliver's Punjab Blog 