Taj Mahal as Shah Jahan saw it

An exile Buddhist monk walks though a flooded Tibetan market close to the Yamuna river in New Delhi. Early Wednesday, the water level in the Yamuna crossed 495 feet, submerging large parts of the controversial Taj Corridor project. AP




People use a boat to move around a flooded area close to the Yamuna river in New Delhi. Not just Taj Mahal, other monuments like the Agra Fort, Etmaduddaula, Chini ka Roza and Mehtab Bagh along the banks of the river are drawing huge crowds as well. AP





A Tibetan exile wades through a flooded monastery close to the Yamuna river in New Delhi. While most people are happy with the state of the river, those living in low-lying areas are naturally alarmed and praying for an early relief. AP



A man takes photographs outside a monastery at a flooded Tibetan market close to the Yamuna river in New Delhi. Swollen river Yamuna has washed away boundary pillars demarcating districts of Uttar Pradesh from Harayana, officials said here. AP



Yamuna river in New Delhi. The boundary pillars and fix points in eleven districts of the two states have been washed away with the river Yamuna flowing above danger mark, they said. AP



A flood-affected resident wades through floodwaters in a slum near the river Yamuna in New Delhi. AP



A man watches the rising water level of the River Yamuna in New Delhi. AP



Locals looks at the rising water level of the River Yamuna in New Delhi. AP



Residents of the inundated Tibetan locality near ISBT carry a pup as they move to safer places after water from the overflowing Yamuna floods the area, in New Delhi on Saturday. AP



A man wades through a flooded lane caused by the rising waters of the Yamuna river at the Tibetan market in New Delhi. The river water level breached the danger mark again this monsoon season due to incessant rains in the capital and surrounding areas. AFP



A flood-affected family camps near the rising River Yamuna in New Delhi. AP





A flood-affected woman sits near the rising River Yamuna in New Delhi. The River Yamuna continued to flow above the danger mark in Delhi, affecting normal life. AP



Children from a flood-affected family camping on higher ground walk near the swelling River Yamuna in New Delhi. AP

Dikshit: Yamuna flowing above danger mark, not to worry

New Delhi: The Yamuna continued to swell on Friday, flowing a metre above the danger mark of 204.83 Friday evening. However, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit maintained that the situation was "under control" and people living in low-lying areas had been shifted to safer places.



Locals smoke tobacco on a section of a bridge amidst rising flood waters of the River Yamuna in New Delhi on Friday. The water level in the Yamuna River has risen one meter above the danger mark, threatening to flood the nearby low lying areas prompting authorities to evacuate hundreds of people living in the low lying areas, according to a news agency.

The Delhi government claimed there was no reason to worry as "all mechanisms have been put in place to deal with the situation" following the release upstream of a huge volume of water into the river by Haryana.




A man watches the rising water level of the River Yamuna in New Delhi on Friday.

According to an official of the Irrigation and Flood Control department, the water level in the Yamuna was recorded at 205.88 metre at 3 pm on Friday, while it was 205.81 an hour earlier.



Locals look at the rising water level of the River Yamuna in New Delhi.

The official said that the water level will continue to rise for the next few hours and is expected to reach 206.35 metres at 4 am on Saturday. He added that a similar situation had arisen last month too due to release of water by Haryana and the Yamuna had swollen to 205.97 metres.




A resident wades through rising flood waters as he comes out of his room near a Hindu temple on the banks of the River Yamuna in New Delhi.

Chief Minister Dikshit told reporters that the "situation is under control" and there was "no reason for people to worry and panic".



A hawker wades through rising flood waters as he enters the gates of a complex to return home, near the banks of the River Yamuna.

She said people living in low-lying areas have been evacuated and shifted to camps put up by the Delhi government. "We are providing them all facilities, including food, in the camps," she said on the sidelines of a function.




A resident wades through rising flood waters as he retrieves his belongings from his room at a Hindu temple on the banks of the River Yamuna, seen through alley right, in New Delhi.

"The situation is under control, don't worry. The huge amount of water which was to reach Delhi from Haryana has fortunately not reached Delhi. I, along with Flood Control Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, am monitoring the situation," she added.




Civil defense persons sit near the bank of the river Yamuna, in New Delhi. Incessant rains in the north India has led to the rising in the water level of river Yamuna, which yet again reached close to the danger mark.

In the meantime, Minister Raj Kumar inspected the low-lying areas near the river. He had held a high-level meeting on Thursday to review the situation.




A woman fills water from a hand pump on the banks of the river Yamuna.

Areas that had been flooded in 1978 included low-lying colonies like Batla House, Garhi Mandu, Yamuna Bazaar, Nigambodh Ghat, Shastri Park, Madanpur Khadar, ITO, Rajghat, Daryaganj, Model Town and Mukherjee Nagar as well as settlements along the river bank.



Children sit on a rickshaw as another, right, proceeds to collect food distributed by a voluntary organization near tents set up by civic authorities for flood victims along the River Yamuna.

However, government officials maintained that these areas were not under threat this time and the river embankments were higher than in 1978. More than 600,000 cusecs of water was released upstream from the Hathni Kund Barrage in Haryana Wednesday, causing the Yamuna to rise four-five cm every hour.



A flood-affected resident prepares to fetch drinking water through floodwaters in a slum near the river Yamuna in New Delhi.

Elaborating some of the emergency measures launched to tackle the situation, an official of the flood control department said that over 100 booster pumps had been fitted along the banks of the river to pump out the water. Orders had been issued for installing more pumps in low-lying areas such as Ring Road, Okhla, Majnu Ka Tila, Burari, Batla House and Jahangirpuri.




Yamuna above danger mark, Delhi shivers

A flood-affected resident wades through floodwaters in a slum near the river Yamuna in New Delhi.

The official said around 75 boats had been kept on the riverside and 68 divers/boatmen and a team of the National Disaster Relief Force deployed to deal with the situation.



Yamuna above danger mark, Delhi shivers

A flood-affected resident carries a child as he wades through floodwaters in a slum near the river Yamuna in New Delhi.

In the 1978 floods, the river had crossed 207.48 metres, affecting more than 250,000 people.



A Metro train moves on a bridge above the over flowing Yamuna river in New Delhi on Thursday.



A rickshaw puller checks his belongings retrieved from his flooded hut on the banks of over flowing Yamuna river in New Delhi on Thursday.



A man affected by flood waters of Yamuna, washes his clothes on the banks of the river in New Delhi on Thursday.



People drive their vehicles on the old Yamuna bridge, which is water logged after the river overflows, in New Delhi on Thursday.



A woman living on the banks of over flowing Yamuna River takes her animal to a safer place in New Delhi on Thursday.



Two boys whose house was submerged by the over flowing Yamuna River carry their cot to a safer place in New Delhi on Thursday.



A stray dog takes shelter on a parked auto rickshaw at a water logged street after heavy rains in Surat on Thursday.



Local people carry motorcycles on a hand-pulled cart as others wade through a water logged street after heavy rains in Surat on Thursday.



Army personnel conducting rescue operation for people affected by flood waters Tawi river, in Jammu on Thursday.

Yamuna above danger mark, Delhi shivers



Overflowing Yamuna near Delhi



Overflowing Yamuna near Delhi

Source: PTI, IANS

What God did not do, Delhi TV crew did

New Delhi: "Did you pray to the God here at this temple in the morning to spare you from the Yamuna floods?" thundered the Zee TV reporter, half-submerged in the Pracheen Shiv Mandir complex on the banks of the river in East Delhi.

Deftly balancing a rainbow umbrella and his camera, the cameraman walked down the steps of the temple to where the reporter was standing, his trousers rolled up to the knees.

The target of the reporter's question was the hapless young priest, Bharat Bhushan, who fumbled and stammered before nodding what looked like a half-yes and a half-no.

But the reporter didn't need an answer, he had one already. "What can God do? The God has drowned," he declared, looking straight into the camera.

The camera moved to the deity who sat in her place with a stone smile on her lips, muddy-brown waterlapping against her feet.

This was just one of the over 20 TV teams that had found perches for themselves and their OB vans along the banks of the Yamuna waiting to record the "catastrophe of sorts", the "10,766-crore-litre deluge", the "moment when cars will start swimming and the city will start drowning".



Happy children, with more than enough water to splash around and bathe in, shouted, "Aaj ki Taaza Khabar."

They had all started work early in the morning, primed by some newspaper headlines that the end was near, that it would come around 4 pm.

That the water could cross the 207-m mark, as it did in 1978.

After around 6 lakh cusecs were released into the Yamuna from the Hathni Kund Barrage in Haryana on Wednesday, the river rose to reach 206.03 m by Friday evening -- 1.2 m above the danger mark.

By Saturday morning, it is expected to rise to 206.35 m, and maybe even reach the Ring Road. But the Central Water Commission said it wasn't going to breach the 207-m mark.



But those were only facts that came in the way of Friday's lovely TV story.

At 4.03 pm, the deluge didn't come. The reporters looked confused. A reporter from India Live stood valiantly, waist-deep in the river, doing her flood piece.

That was the lowest vantage point. As she stood under the bridge, telling the world that Delhi was about to drown, Pawan Mishra, a slightly puzzled bystander, made an obvious point. "But this is where the Yamuna flows. It is the river's space. Why are they all making it seem as if the river has expanded?" Mishra said.

But Mishra confessed to having played his own part in the tamasha. Somewhat guiltily, he said he had succumbed to the invitation of a young reporter who, speaking in Punjabi, had urged him to roll up his trousers and get into the water. He had done so, but the river had only lapped his ankles.

She had egged him to go farther. But from where they were standing, the river had looked menacing to Mishra. He had chickened out.

Later, he was looking for her.



"They are like butterflies," Mishra said. "They skip from one spot to another, stand on the bridge, go down to the river, they do all sorts of things," he said. "I have been watching them for a while. One of them asked me to ask for flood relief on camera. But I don't even live here. I only came to watch the 4 pm deluge." One cameraman said his channel had given him specific instructions to show the water as if it was a threat.

"Of course this is a flood," he said, pointing to a few jhuggis that had been submerged.

"We do what we are asked to do. We will be here late into the night. Yo u never know when the floods will come." In 1978, the river had crossed 207.48 m, affecting over 250,000 people.

But on Friday, when no deluge came, the reporters began to take U-turns. One channel said there was a "Brake on the floods"; one reporter, a cloud over his face, said there was "no hope of floods". His anchor had a ready explanation: a crack in a dam in Panipat was the reason why the flood had got delayed.

What God did not do, Delhi TV crew did



At Boat Club near ISBT, TV crew had hired rickety boats to do their "piece-to-camera" or "walk-through".

Around 74 boats and 68 divers were kept in the standby mode by the Delhi government but at the Boat Club most boatmen made a killing by renting out the boats to TV crew.

A member of a television crew stationed near the Yamuna said the boats could be used for rescue operations with the cameras in them.

The media was doing public service, he said.

In a far corner, Doordarshan reporter Anuj Yadav stood with his team. "We are reporting the truth. There are no floods here. The other media are reporting Delhi will be flooded in 24 hours. This is creating a crisis," he said. "This is Peepli [Live]."

A few steps away from this moral high ground, a young TV reporter climbed on to the roof of a house, adjusted her hair and began to speak. She was out of earshot.

Source: The Indian Express