Ganga Floods Varanasi Ghats; Cremations and Dashashwamedh Aarti Move to Rooftops

Rising Ganga water covered the lower platforms at Varanasi’s main cremation and aarti ghats on Friday. At Manikarnika, last rites moved onto the crematorium terrace. At Dashashwamedh, the evening Ganga Aarti shifted to a rooftop. Riverfront accounts from mourners, Dom workers and police described the same squeeze across both ghats.

Mourner Shankar Kumar said he arrived to find cremations already underway on the Manikarnika terrace after the steps below had gone under. “People coming to perform the last rites of their loved ones are facing difficulties and have to wait for some time,” he said. Dom community member Shalu Chaudhary said: “Cremations have been shifted to the rooftop.”

On-ground accounts put the Manikarnika rooftop load at about seven bodies at a time. On a normal multi-level day the ghat handles more than 20. At Harishchandra Ghat, rites spilled into the lanes. Space there was limited to about three pyres at once, so waits stretched. Vikram Chaudhary of the Domraja family said, in Hindi, that with the ghat submerged, cremations were being done in the lanes where families also live, and that created trouble for both rites and daily life. (English rendering marked as translation from the Hindi original.)

A 21 August riverfront update timed 09:22 IST said the Dashashwamedh Aarti had likewise moved upstairs. Jal Police, the National Disaster Response Force and the Provincial Armed Constabulary were on round-the-clock ghat patrol, according to the same official-adjacent riverfront reporting.

Boat services stayed suspended. Assistant Commissioner of Police Atul Anjan Tripathi said Thursday’s level stood at 68.35 metres against a danger mark of 71.26 metres. “Lakhs of devotees are visiting Varanasi during the month of Sawan. Keeping their safety in mind, boat operations have been suspended as a precautionary measure,” he said.

Central Water Commission figures showed the river still below the danger mark but rising. CWC readings at 08:00 Friday put the Ganga at Varanasi at 68.74 metres — roughly two metres under the danger level of 71.262 metres — and climbing about two centimetres an hour. A 10:00 Friday CWC citation stood at 68.78 metres. Another CWC citation on 21 August reported 67.68 metres with a rise of nearly 50 millimetres an hour, still below 71.26 metres. The dated readings are reported as published; they do not prove an overnight fall.

Bankside accounts also noted that the Namaste sculpture at Namo Ghat stood partly under water as pockets along the bank felt the swell. Dom workers and police described a squeezed workflow at the two main burning ghats. Space that normally spreads across stepped platforms had collapsed onto rooftops and adjoining galiyan. Families arriving for last rites faced queues measured in hours rather than minutes, according to the mourner and Dom accounts.

Police and disaster units kept the riverfront under watch as levels tracked toward the warning band without crossing the published danger mark in the Friday CWC citations compiled here. Shrawan crowds kept pressing into the city even as the steps stayed underwater and boats stayed tied up.

As of Friday’s CWC citations, the Ganga at Varanasi remained below the 71.26-metre danger mark, and boat services stayed suspended on ACP Atul Anjan Tripathi’s Shrawan safety order.