People carrying bulls to safety through the flooded waters of Yamuna River after heavy monsoon rains in New Delhi on Wednesday. Credit...Arun Sankar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Evacuations Ordered in Delhi: Monsoon Flooding in Pictures
The authorities warned of widespread flooding in the Indian capital after days of torrential rains claimed dozens of lives in neighboring states.
People carrying bulls to safety through the flooded waters of Yamuna River after heavy monsoon rains in New Delhi on Wednesday.Credit...Arun Sankar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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Text by Sameer Yasir and Hari Kumar
Reporting from New Delhi
July 13, 2023
Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Delhi on Thursday after the authorities warned of widespread flooding following days of torrential rains that have battered large swaths of northern India.
The level of the Yamuna River, which flows through the Indian capital and is a tributary of the Ganges, had breached the so-called danger mark by three meters (about 10 feet) on Thursday, according to the Central Water Commission. That forced the chief minister of the capital region, Arvind Kejriwal, to shut schools and convert them into disaster relief camps.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Many migrant workers, who live on the banks of the river, were camping on the roads alongside it as their makeshift homes were swallowed by the water. Others had to evacuate to try to reach higher ground.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Many others were looking for shelter as water enveloped sections of residential areas and historical sites like the Red Fort.
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Credit...Associated Press
So far this monsoon season, officials said, landslides and flash floods have claimed at least 91 lives in six north Indian states near Delhi, and disrupted millions of others. Indian Army personnel were seen rescuing villagers after the Sutlej River flooded in the state of Punjab, on Wednesday.
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Credit...Shammi Mehra/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Entire streets were flooded in the capital.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
In the city of Amritsar in Punjab, people waited for trains inside a station after rail services were disrupted by heavy rains on Tuesday.
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Credit...Narinder Nanu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Three water treatment plants were shuttered in the capital because they were flooded, and many neighborhoods in what is one of the biggest metropolitan regions in the country could face shortages of drinking water.
“Twenty-five percent of the water supply will be affected by this,” Mr. Kejriwal said about the closure of water treatment plants. “People will face difficulties, and they have to bear it. I appeal to the people not to come out of their homes and do maximum work from home.”
China
Amritsar
HIMACHAL PRADESH
PUNJAB
UTTARA-
KHAND
NEpal
HARYANA
New Delhi
Yamuna R.
Ganges R.
India
Mumbai
200 miles
By The New York Times
Residential areas like the upscale Civil Lines, where Mr. Kejriwal lives, were also flooded. A boy walked on a wall of his flooded house in Delhi, on Wednesday.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Residents sought dry ground.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
A woman collected her belongings before relocating from a low lying area near the Yamuna River in northeast Delhi.
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Credit...Arun Sankar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
And rescue crews worked to evacuate people from the high waters.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
So far this season, the hardest-hit area has been the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, where at least 45 people have died since Saturday. The rains have destroyed infrastructure worth millions of dollars there, and in the state of Haryana, thousands of acres of agricultural crops. Tens of thousands of people remain stranded in the state of Uttarakhand, where roads leading to four important Hindu pilgrim sites have been blocked for the last few days.
India has often experienced extreme weather patterns, including record heat waves and heavy floods in monsoon season. Every year, the monsoon brings 80 percent of South Asia’s annual rainfall in a season that starts in June and ends in August. But in recent years, it has become erratic and more extreme, delivering death and destruction through floods and landslides.
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Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Sameer Yasir is a reporter based in New Delhi. He joined The Times in 2020. More about Sameer Yasir
Hari Kumar is a reporter in the New Delhi bureau. He joined The Times in 1997. More about Hari Kumar
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A , Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Desperate Rush for Safety in Delhi As Flooding Engulfs Northern India . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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