Hindus lighting funeral pyres on terraces in Varanasi due to floods.
Highlights
- Holy city flooded, Hindus lighting funeral pyres on terraces
- River Ganga flowing as high as roofs of some houses near ghats
- Knee-high water in congested lanes leading to Ganga
Standing on the roof of a three-storey building in Varanasi that overlooks the Ganga, Santosh Kumar Singh looked solemnly at a terrace below. That is where his grandfather, who was 103, was being cremated because the banks or ghats of the sacred river are flooded.
"It's been a tradition for generations in our family to cremate our dead here. So coming here was non-negotiable, despite the flood," said Mr Singh, 34, to NDTV. Later, he scattered his grandfather's ashes into the river which was flowing nearly as high as the terrace where the funeral pyre was lit.
The Ganga has crossed the danger mark and is flowing close to its level in 1978, when it overflowed into the streets of the holy city.
The narrow lanes near the ghats, dirty at the best of times, are flooded with knee-deep water.
More than 2,00,000 people have been forced from their homes in recent days in eastern Uttar Pradesh as rain-swollen rivers burst their banks.
Congested lanes of Varansi leading to Ganga is flooded with knee-high water.
Forlorn, Sanjay, a boatman, says the government has banned the quick river cruises so popular with tourists and pilgrims. That means he's left without his income of about Rs 500 a day. "It's the river, it's her mood .I will have to borrow money if this goes on for long," he said.