Ganga Eases to 67.97 m; Boat Ban Stays as Ghats Stay Flooded

The Ganga at Varanasi eased to 67.97 metres at 8 am on Thursday, according to the Central Water Commission gauge, down from the 68.36 metres recorded a day earlier, yet major ghats stayed under floodwater and the boat ban remained in force.

The Thursday morning reading put the river about 2.29 metres below the 70.26-metre warning level and about 3.29 metres below the 71.26-metre danger mark. Officials tracking the gauge described a fall of roughly 50 millimetres per hour across the previous 24 hours. The drop is welcome after days when the stage had held near 68.3 metres, but it has not cleared the stone steps that pilgrims use every morning in Pitru Paksha.

Assi, Dashashwamedh, Manikarnika and Namo ghat were among the stretches still carrying floodwater on Thursday. Aarti points that had shifted during the earlier rise remained displaced. District directions continued to suspend boat operations until further orders. NDRF and water police teams kept patrolling the riverfront, using loudspeakers to warn people away from deep water as shraadh crowds pressed the usable higher steps.

Pitru Paksha brings families to the ghats for offerings even when the river is high. That mix of ritual urgency and flooded landings is what keeps the administration on a flood footing after the crest has begun to ease. Thursday's message from the gauge and the district line was consistent: the river is falling, but the ban on boats and the caution on deep water still apply.

Local boatmen who normally work the tourist and pilgrim circuits stay idle under the ban. For them the 0.39-metre fall from Wednesday to Thursday is not yet a reopening signal. Administration briefings have tied any restart to a clearer retreat of water from the working steps, not only to a number below warning level.

Shopkeepers on the upper lanes above Dashashwamedh and Assi reported that footfall for shraadh remained heavy even as the lower platforms stayed wet. Priests conducting offerings have been working from whatever dry ledge the morning level allows. The sight of tied boats along stretches that usually buzz with hire craft has become the riverfront's October open, at least until the district formally lifts the ban.

Residents along low pockets that take reverse flow when the Ganga is high will watch the next few morning bulletins as closely as the ghat crowd does. Thursday's CWC figure is one data point in a slow decline. Until boats are formally cleared and the lower steps dry, the city's public riverfront remains in the same restricted mode that defined late September: patrols on the water, aartis on shifted platforms, and pilgrims asked to keep to safer footing.