Between snakes, privacy and uncertainty, families along Yamuna banks live on the edge

New Delhi, Sep 2 (PTI) Muddy routes, dripping tents and cloth bundles holding belongings together kept ready by the door, life for families along the Yamuna in Delhi has become a cycle of constant movement, half in their homes and half outside, never certain when the water will force them out again.

At Hathi Ghat near ITO, the area resembles a forest hidden within the city. Muddy tracks cut through guava trees, harvested crops and thick shrubs that lead to clusters of huts built with wood, cloth and plastic sheets. Nearly 70 families continue to stay here, even as warnings grow louder.

“The other night, a snake slithered over my son as he slept. I could not move until it went away,” said 25-year-old Anita, a mother of two, told PTI. Another woman, Kalpana, remembered opening a trunk only to find a snake coiled inside her clothes.

With high volumes of water being released from Wazirabad and Hathnikund barrages, the Yamuna river in Delhi crossed the evacuation mark of 206.03 metres at 4 pm on Tuesday at Delhi's Old Railway Bridge (ORB), for the first time this year, and water entered several low-lying areas along its banks, forcing people to move to safer places.

For people living in the Yamuna flood-prone areas, the decision is not only about fear but also dignity. “Here, between the trees, we can tie clothes and make small spaces to change clothes or bathe. On the roadside, we would be living on display,” said Mehrunnisa, an agricultural worker who grew brinjals and chillies along the Yamuna bank.

"For us, it’s a double-edged sword," said a farm labourer, requesting anonymity. "If we stay where we were, there is a constant fear of snakes and other wild animals. But the tents we’ve been given leak throughout the night due to the rain. We are forced to live on the roadside, exposed and vulnerable. Is that even a life? " questioned another.

“They tell us our things will be protected, but how do we trust anybody? Just imagine sleeping facing the main road, not knowing what might happen at night. That is a major issue for us,” she added.

Many families also point to their animals as a reason for staying back. “We have cattle, horses and even camels. They are part of our life and our food. How can we leave them behind?” asked Faizal, who grew guava trees right outside his jhuggi.

The picture is different at the ghats near Yamuna Bazaar, close to Kashmiri Gate, where water entered homes around 2 am on Tuesday. By morning, the narrow lanes on the ghats were knee-deep in water, forcing people to evacuate with bundles on their heads.

“Earlier, the water would stop at the main door and just wet our floors, but this time we woke up and it was already inside. We grabbed whatever we could and left the rest on beds,” said Sunitha, a resident near the Ghat.

A bystander, Raj Rani Sharma, who was listening to Sunitha, recalled the trauma of Delhi’s 2023 floods. "The last time the water was eight feet deep, and nobody even knew if we were trapped. That fear has never left me, even now, we have already kept our belongings packed to evacuate." The tents erected here overnight on the footpath provided some cover, but families said they were too few. “The tents are not bad, but there are more of us than shelters. They say more will be set up soon, hopefully they do,” said Mahima, who has been shifting back and forth as the water rises and recedes.

“At this point, on one side we face snakes and scorpions that enter our homes along with the mud that we need to clear, even if we keep aside the fear of diseases, and on the other side we risk our belongings on the main road,” said Rekha, who had been displaced even during the previous floods.

Meanwhile, residents who are professional lifeguards and swimming coaches and live along the Yamuna Bazaar stretch said they are constantly pulling people away from the water.

“Every day at least two or three people go too close or the water gets dangerously near. Most don’t even know how to swim. This morning, even as the water rose, people came with Ganesh idols. One or two almost got swept away. We had to pull them back,” Surendhra said.

“We have been sitting here guarding our things that we kept on our roof, and as we observe, the water has been rising rapidly. I think in the past 15 minutes we saw the water already rise an inch, it is terrifying,” said Anil Kumar Sharma, a dweller of the area and a swimming coach by profession.

Residents were seen living in roadside tents that they made with cloth and kept bundles marked with names, hoping not to lose their belongings. “We sit outside with our children, sometimes even under the bridge, because we are scared. This is no life,” said Savitri.

Despite the hardships, many insist they cannot leave permanently. “People ask why we don’t move elsewhere. But this is my childhood, my entire life. I have known no other place than the Yamuna banks,” said Rani.

Men, too, pointed to the difficulty of uprooting. “We managed to tie our cattle on higher ground, but for us, there is no other place. We worked as agricultural workers, labourers and did all sorts of odd jobs since our childhood. We can’t leave this place,” said Ramesh, who stayed behind briefly to shift livestock as his family went back to his village in Uttar Pradesh.

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