Delhi, Agra, Haryana, Punjab UP, Gujarat are under floods
Uttar Pradesh:
Floods continued to wreak havoc in 50 villages of Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, especially after the release of eight lakh cusec water into the Yamuna from Haryana's Hathni Kund Barrage on Wednesday and Thursday.
The same day, an air force helicopter airlifted three farmers who had been trapped on a tree for three days at the inundated Dholara village.
About five lakh cusecs had been released into the river from the barrage just four days ago. And it bodes ill for Delhi too in the next 24 hours.
The water is currently flowing towards Shahdara via Kairana and Baghpat. The Dehradun-Saharanpur-Ambala National Highway- 73 is submerged, with 50 truck drivers leaving their vehicles on the road to escape.
The flooded villages include Dikka Kalan, Sanauli, Fatehpur Jatt, Bhadhi, Shukratal, Ranipur Barsi and Chauri Mandi and people here are marooned due to the continuous downpour. Almost 4,000 have turned homeless in Saharanpur.
The district administration, taken by surprise, has asked villagers to shift to safer areas. The rescue work is yet to start, maybe from Friday morning when the PAC will start distributing relief material.
Villagers claim that over 400 houses have collapsed and entire crops destroyed. District magistrate Alok Kumar, however, said: "There is no casualty yet. We have already set up relief camps and demanded boats and relief material."
One of the rescued farmers, Mahipal, said: "The water level rose within 10 minutes and the flow was so intense that we would have died had we not climbed a tree. I had seen this kind of floods in 1978, when I was a child."
- Piyush Srivastava/ Lucknow
Haryana and Punjab:
The surging Yamuna and its seasonal tributaries have inundated more than 50 villages in Haryana's Yamunanagar district. The administration had to call in the army for the rescue operation, in which several people - who had taken refuge on roofs and treetops to escape the water gushing into their houses - had to be saved.
The river and its rivulets, Som Nadi and Pathrala, are on a spate after two days of heavy rain in their catchment region. Also, the Yamuna started overflowing after six lakh cusec water was released into it from the Hathni Kund Barrage on Wednesday.
The Haryana flood control department said an additional 2.13 lakh cusec was released on Thursday. The water threatens to flood low- lying areas in Delhi.
In Haryana, this is the third time this monsoon that the Yamuna has wreaked havoc in the villages, causing loss to life, property and agriculture.
The inundation has also been caused by fresh breaches in the river bank. Sources said the incessant rain had forced the authorities to release water into the river from Tajewala Barrage, which caused the breaches. Efforts are on to plug them.
The government said it had already alerted Delhi about the impending floods. Low-lying areas in Haryana are also being evacuated. The inundation disrupted traffic on the Jagadhri- Ponta Sahib National Highway.
In Ambala, the situation was equally bad while the army saved six persons in Barara on Wednesday.
The flood threat is also looming over Punjab as the Ghaggar and Satluj Rivers are in spate.
At least 15 villages were submerged in the Anandpur Sahib subdivision of Ropar district when the Satluj overflowed.
Officials carrying out relief operations said the Laudipur, Burj, Hariwal, Mataur, Chandpur, Mehndi Kalan, Kalyanpur, Badhal, Nikkuwal and Ballowal villages were the worst affected.
The overflow started when the Bhakra Beas Management Board released 12,000 cusec into the Satluj on Sunday. Agricultural experts say the water has damaged crops in villages in both the states.
- Vikas Kahol/ Chandigarh
Uttarakhand
A woman was badly injured and her two children were killed when their house collapsed following heavy rains at Uttarakhand's Mehargaon village in Tehri on Wednesday. This took the monsoon death toll in the hill state to 98, while 51 others were critically injured.
The heavy rain has taken a toll on the roads as well. Till Thursday, 22 roads were blocked by landslides and some were swept away in the downpour. The Char Dham Yatra, comprising Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, remains suspended because of roadblocks.
The Ganga is flowing over the danger mark (at 292 meters) in Haridwar, while the water level at Tehri dam has touched the 823.50 meter mark. The Tehri Hydro Power Corporation has issued an alert to villagers living on the river bank.
Its chief general manager A. L. Shah said: "We are releasing 800 cubic metres of water per second from the reservoir and have advised the villagers not to venture near the Ganga."
The state disaster mitigation and management centre data says the rains have damaged over 50 bridges and culverts. The data collected from June 1 to September 9, says 1,941 houses have suffered partial damage and 231 were fully ruined. Over 550 livestock has been lost this season.
The Rishikesh-Badrinath highway was closed because of a landslide at Devprayag on Thursday. Anurag Bhasin, director of the BRO's Shivalik project, said: "We cleared a landslide in Maletha, but the one at Devprayag will take time." This caused a ripple effect, stranding thousands of pilgrims on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway.
- Raju Gusain/ Dehradun
Jammu:
Thirteen people were rescued from the clutches of the swollen Tawi River by the army in Jammu on Thursday. They got trapped in flash floods which struck the region after heavy rain on the higher reaches.
The unsuspecting persons had ventured out into the shallow river - which is mainly rain fed and the main source of irrigation in the state - at the Belicharana area at a time when there was no sign of flooding.
The station house officer (SHO) of the area said: "Suddenly, flooding started and they took refuge on a small island formation between the river. An alert was sounded and army teams were pressed into service with boats for the rescue mission."
Interestingly, Jammu deputy commissioner M. K. Dwivedi had given strict instructions to all SHOs not to allow the public to venture out into the river in a flood-like situation. Mostly, migrant labourers go to the river to collect sand and sell it in the market.
And this is not the first time the river has taken them by surprise. It is a normal practice for the army and air force to rescue nomadic Gujjars and other labourers from the Tawi when flash floods strike.
The administration has again sounded an alert and asked the public to refrain from approaching the Tawi as floods could hit the area anytime.
Haryana barrage discharge sinks states in north India: India : India Today
Uttar Pradesh:
Floods continued to wreak havoc in 50 villages of Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, especially after the release of eight lakh cusec water into the Yamuna from Haryana's Hathni Kund Barrage on Wednesday and Thursday.
The same day, an air force helicopter airlifted three farmers who had been trapped on a tree for three days at the inundated Dholara village.
About five lakh cusecs had been released into the river from the barrage just four days ago. And it bodes ill for Delhi too in the next 24 hours.
The water is currently flowing towards Shahdara via Kairana and Baghpat. The Dehradun-Saharanpur-Ambala National Highway- 73 is submerged, with 50 truck drivers leaving their vehicles on the road to escape.
The flooded villages include Dikka Kalan, Sanauli, Fatehpur Jatt, Bhadhi, Shukratal, Ranipur Barsi and Chauri Mandi and people here are marooned due to the continuous downpour. Almost 4,000 have turned homeless in Saharanpur.
The district administration, taken by surprise, has asked villagers to shift to safer areas. The rescue work is yet to start, maybe from Friday morning when the PAC will start distributing relief material.
Villagers claim that over 400 houses have collapsed and entire crops destroyed. District magistrate Alok Kumar, however, said: "There is no casualty yet. We have already set up relief camps and demanded boats and relief material."
One of the rescued farmers, Mahipal, said: "The water level rose within 10 minutes and the flow was so intense that we would have died had we not climbed a tree. I had seen this kind of floods in 1978, when I was a child."
- Piyush Srivastava/ Lucknow
Haryana and Punjab:
The surging Yamuna and its seasonal tributaries have inundated more than 50 villages in Haryana's Yamunanagar district. The administration had to call in the army for the rescue operation, in which several people - who had taken refuge on roofs and treetops to escape the water gushing into their houses - had to be saved.
The river and its rivulets, Som Nadi and Pathrala, are on a spate after two days of heavy rain in their catchment region. Also, the Yamuna started overflowing after six lakh cusec water was released into it from the Hathni Kund Barrage on Wednesday.
The Haryana flood control department said an additional 2.13 lakh cusec was released on Thursday. The water threatens to flood low- lying areas in Delhi.
In Haryana, this is the third time this monsoon that the Yamuna has wreaked havoc in the villages, causing loss to life, property and agriculture.
The inundation has also been caused by fresh breaches in the river bank. Sources said the incessant rain had forced the authorities to release water into the river from Tajewala Barrage, which caused the breaches. Efforts are on to plug them.
The government said it had already alerted Delhi about the impending floods. Low-lying areas in Haryana are also being evacuated. The inundation disrupted traffic on the Jagadhri- Ponta Sahib National Highway.
In Ambala, the situation was equally bad while the army saved six persons in Barara on Wednesday.
The flood threat is also looming over Punjab as the Ghaggar and Satluj Rivers are in spate.
At least 15 villages were submerged in the Anandpur Sahib subdivision of Ropar district when the Satluj overflowed.
Officials carrying out relief operations said the Laudipur, Burj, Hariwal, Mataur, Chandpur, Mehndi Kalan, Kalyanpur, Badhal, Nikkuwal and Ballowal villages were the worst affected.
The overflow started when the Bhakra Beas Management Board released 12,000 cusec into the Satluj on Sunday. Agricultural experts say the water has damaged crops in villages in both the states.
- Vikas Kahol/ Chandigarh
Uttarakhand
A woman was badly injured and her two children were killed when their house collapsed following heavy rains at Uttarakhand's Mehargaon village in Tehri on Wednesday. This took the monsoon death toll in the hill state to 98, while 51 others were critically injured.
The heavy rain has taken a toll on the roads as well. Till Thursday, 22 roads were blocked by landslides and some were swept away in the downpour. The Char Dham Yatra, comprising Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, remains suspended because of roadblocks.
The Ganga is flowing over the danger mark (at 292 meters) in Haridwar, while the water level at Tehri dam has touched the 823.50 meter mark. The Tehri Hydro Power Corporation has issued an alert to villagers living on the river bank.
Its chief general manager A. L. Shah said: "We are releasing 800 cubic metres of water per second from the reservoir and have advised the villagers not to venture near the Ganga."
The state disaster mitigation and management centre data says the rains have damaged over 50 bridges and culverts. The data collected from June 1 to September 9, says 1,941 houses have suffered partial damage and 231 were fully ruined. Over 550 livestock has been lost this season.
The Rishikesh-Badrinath highway was closed because of a landslide at Devprayag on Thursday. Anurag Bhasin, director of the BRO's Shivalik project, said: "We cleared a landslide in Maletha, but the one at Devprayag will take time." This caused a ripple effect, stranding thousands of pilgrims on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway.
- Raju Gusain/ Dehradun
Jammu:
Thirteen people were rescued from the clutches of the swollen Tawi River by the army in Jammu on Thursday. They got trapped in flash floods which struck the region after heavy rain on the higher reaches.
The unsuspecting persons had ventured out into the shallow river - which is mainly rain fed and the main source of irrigation in the state - at the Belicharana area at a time when there was no sign of flooding.
The station house officer (SHO) of the area said: "Suddenly, flooding started and they took refuge on a small island formation between the river. An alert was sounded and army teams were pressed into service with boats for the rescue mission."
Interestingly, Jammu deputy commissioner M. K. Dwivedi had given strict instructions to all SHOs not to allow the public to venture out into the river in a flood-like situation. Mostly, migrant labourers go to the river to collect sand and sell it in the market.
And this is not the first time the river has taken them by surprise. It is a normal practice for the army and air force to rescue nomadic Gujjars and other labourers from the Tawi when flash floods strike.
The administration has again sounded an alert and asked the public to refrain from approaching the Tawi as floods could hit the area anytime.
Haryana barrage discharge sinks states in north India: India : India Today
