Waters from a raging Yamuna submerged homes, destroyed shop goods and disrupted traffic in several areas, throwing life out of gear for thousands of people in the national capital which affected both residential and commercial areas, as the river reached the third highest ever recorded at 207.41 meter mark on Wednesday for the fifth time since 1963.
The river earlier breached the 207-metre mark in 2023 (208.66m), 2013 (207.32m), 2010 (207.11m), and 1978 (207.49m). Incessant rainfall over the past few days has brought life to a standstill in Delhi-NCR, triggering widespread waterlogging and traffic jams.
The water from the flooded river also entered the Nigambodh Ghat, Delhi's oldest and busiest cremation ground, forcing it to halt operations and cremation bodies scheduled there are being redirected to the Panchkuian crematorium. The Geeta Colony crematorium and Wazirabad crematorium was also flooded, forcing the staff to look for dry places to carry out cremations.
Areas including Yamuna Bazar, Geeta Colony, Majnu Ka Tila, Kashmiri Gate, Garhi Mandu, and Mayur Vihar are flooded. Most of these places have a mix of both commercial and residential buildings.
According to the revenue department, while 15,000 have been shifted to 13 permanent shelters. Around 180 people are yet to be shifted. All 13 regulator drains in the city were closed to avoid any backflow of water from the Yamuna as the water level in the river is high and reaching a critical point.
Carrying their belongings on their heads, people waded through neck-deep water to move to safer locations. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), police, and fire department have been roped in to carry out the rescue work. From shopkeepers in Majnu-ka-Tila to families in Madanpur Khadar, Jaitpur, and Badarpur, many have been displaced and forced to relocate to makeshift shelters, hoping for the waters to recede.