Lucknow: Torrential monsoon rains have unleashed widespread flooding across Uttar Pradesh, leaving at least 14 people dead, displacing thousands, and paralyzing daily life across large swathes of the state.
With water levels rising rapidly and rivers breaching danger marks, 17 districts are currently inundated, and relief operations are underway on a war footing.
Among the latest casualties are two teenage girls in Sitapur who were killed early Monday morning when a wall collapsed on them amid heavy downpours. In Budaun district, two brothers — Bhuwanesh, 9, and Navneet, 14 — drowned after entering a waterlogged pit to bathe, unaware of its depth. A third boy was rescued by villagers. These deaths have pushed the state’s rain-related toll to 14 in the last 24 hours.
In eastern Uttar Pradesh, the situation has turned dire as the Ganga River continues to rise in cities like Varanasi and Prayagraj. Over 100,000 homes have been submerged, and cremation grounds — including Varanasi’s sacred Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats — have been inundated. In a striking image of the city’s distress, bodies are now being cremated 15 feet above the flooded ghats, on rooftops converted into makeshift funeral platforms. Families wait for hours with corpses as soaked firewood delays cremations, and multiple pyres are being lit at once to manage the growing queue.
