Haryana’s northern districts on alert as Markanda, Ghaggar, Tangri rivers in spate

The northern districts of Haryana faced flood-like conditions on Monday morning with the Markanda, Ghaggar and Tangri rivers and Narwana branch canal in spate due to incessant rain in the region for the third day, inundating low-lying areas in Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and parts of Karnal districts.

The Yamuna continued to rise and reached around 1.9 lakh cusecs, forcing the authorities to warn and evacuate people living in low-lying areas. The flow of water in the Yamuna river at Hathnikund barrage in Yamunanagar rose to 3,09,526 cusecs between 3am and 4am on Monday, triggering alerts in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

According officials of the irrigation and water resources department, this is the highest water flow of this monsoon season as the discharge increased after heavy rainfall in the catchment areas.

Water flow from 70,000 cusecs to 1.5 lakh cusecs is considered ‘low flood’, from 1.5 lakh cusecs to 2.5 lakh it is called ‘medium flood’ and the water flow above 2.5 lakh cusecs is ‘high flood’, officials said.

Heavy rain was reported from Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra districts, disrupting normal life and forcing the authorities to shut schools.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar called an emergency meeting at Chandigarh in the morning to review the situation and cancelled all his scheduled programmes. Officials of the irrigation department have been directed to remain alert and continue the patrolling of the affected areas.

Though there was no major impact in the southern districts, people were facing problems in Gurugram and Sonepat districts.