Ganga Steady at 68.36 m; Boat Ban Holds Through Pitru Paksha

The Central Water Commission recorded the Ganga at Varanasi at 68.36 metres at 8 am on Wednesday, 30 September, holding steady after the sharp climb logged a day earlier. The reading remains well below the city's warning mark of 70.26 metres and danger mark of 71.26 metres, yet water on the lower steps and temple approaches is still high enough for the district boat ban to stay in force.

Wednesday's morning mark sits about 11 centimetres above the 68.25 m noon reading reported for Tuesday. The river had been rising at roughly three centimetres an hour through Tuesday afternoon before the overnight period brought the gauge into a flatter band. Officials continue to watch upstream releases and the Prayagraj stage, where a fall can feed a later ease at Banaras.

District administration directions keep boat operations suspended. National Disaster Response Force teams and water police remain on alert along the riverfront. Patrols have been stepped up because Pitru Paksha crowds are pressing the ghats for shraddha and related rites even while the lower courses stay wet. The practical message for devotees is unchanged: stay on upper terraces, keep children back from the deeper edge, and treat even a familiar ghat as unsafe for deep bathing.

Sheetla Mata temple precincts that took water on Tuesday remain affected for routine puja access. At Dashashwamedh, the water police post has again been close to the rising edge. Rope lines and barricades at stretches such as Namo Ghat are meant to keep casual visitors off the wetter courses while the gauge sits in the high sixties.

Pitru Paksha, which opened late last week and runs into early October, regularly brings families from outside the city onto the stone stairs for morning rites. That seasonal pressure coincides this year with a post-monsoon river that is still elevated. Administration appeals have asked pilgrims to check the water line before walking down and to follow instructions from NDRF and water police pickets.

CWC monitoring continues through the day. A stable morning reading does not by itself reopen boats. The ban is a safety call tied to current, debris and submerged steps as much as to the absolute metre mark. Until the district lifts the order, commercial and tourist boat runs stay off the water.

Manikarnika and Harishchandra approaches remain harder for families bringing the dead when the lower landings are wet. Priests and attendants have been shifting ceremony spots a few steps higher where the stone is still dry. That adjustment is temporary and local; it does not change the city-wide boat order.

For residents who live by the ghats, the immediate inconvenience is wet approaches and a quieter riverfront without the usual boat traffic. For visitors here for ancestral rites, the safer path is the upper landing and a short ceremony away from the deeper flow. Wednesday's 68.36 m figure is a pause, not a clearance. The next CWC updates will show whether the flat band holds or whether another climb returns water to the steps that dried overnight.