Agra monuments, colonies flooded as Yamuna level rise

AGRA - Water level in the Yamuna river continued to rise Saturday leading to flooding of some monuments, about a dozen colonies and a few villages in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district, officials said.

Low lying areas in Vrindavan and other areas in the neighbouring Mathura district also battled with flood waters.

On Saturday, the river’s level in Agra touched the 499 feet “medium flood” mark.

Irrigation department officials said that in the evening that water was rising in Mathura. “The Yamuna level is expected to peak Sunday night and then stabilise for a few hours before receding, if there are no more heavy discharges from upstream barrages,” an official said.

In Agra, water from the Mantola nullah entered the Agra Fort moat and a portion of the controversial Taj Heritage Corridor was submerged.

The river water also entered the historical Mehtab Bagh opposite the Taj Mahal across the Yamuna.

The Taj Ganj ghat, a bank where cremations are done, was under water and bodies had to be cremated outside.

Water entered more than a dozen colonies in the Dayalbagh area of Agra. “We have been told that the Yamuna water level could go as high as 500 feet by Sunday evening, so we are shifting our luggage to the terrace,” a resident of Amar Vihar colony, Manohar Gidwani, told IANS.

Yamuna water also flowed into the Kailash and Balkeshwar Shiva temples.

In Bah and Bateshwar tehsil, the water cut off scores of villages and destroyed standing crop.