Yamuna crosses 207m mark, spills over banks into Capital

The Yamuna’s waters gushed into parts of north and east Delhi on Wednesday, flooding roads, parks, markets and cremation grounds as the river surged to its third-highest level ever, prompting thousands to leave their homes and the government to step up efforts to prevent waterlogging.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok and Aheli Das

As of lpm, the river was flowing at a height of 207.44m, nearly a metre-and-a-half above the evacuation threshold, and just short of 207.49m, the level the Yamuna reached during the calamitous floods of 1978.

The river was being fed primarily by showers upstream, over 72mm of rain in the city since Monday and the sustained release of water from the Hathnikund barrage upstream in Haryana, which has been filled to the brim for days now on the back of relentless rain in northern India.

Wednesday's floods triggered memories of the 2023 floods ~ Delhi's worst ever, when the Yamuna hit an all-time peak of 208.66m on July 13.

Delhi will likely receive more rain this week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) warned that the Yamuna's waters would surge to 207.49m at 8am on Thursday.

The Hathnikund barrage filled to 99.9% of capacity as of llpm on Wednesday and its hourly discharge was between 184,000 and 158,000 cusecs per hour.

Nearly 12,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas since Tuesday, government officials said, as the waters flooded the popular Monastery Market in Civil Lines and Vishwakarma Colony in Jaitpur.

Floodwaters also cascaded into Nigambodh Ghat, which carried out cremations till around 3pm before turning people away as the river's waters crept towards the main pyre.