(Feature Image: Yamuna river in severe flood at Mawi site in Kairana, UP on Sept. 02, 2025)
We have been able to observe river attaining new Highest Flood Level (HFL) at least at 18 flood monitoring sites of the Central Water Commission (CWC) in the last month of South West Monsoon 2025. These 18 sites are spread over 7 States & UT, including Jammu & Kashmir (6 sites), Maharashtra (4 sites), Uttar Pradesh (3 sites), Haryana (2 sites), Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka (1 each site) comprising 5 river basins including Indus (6), Ganga (6), Krishna (3), Tapi (2) and Godavari (1).
The details of all these sites are given in the tables below. The sixth column of the table has the information about rise in meters (m) over the old HFL, duration (hours-hrs) the river has stayed in extreme floods and number of years (yrs) after the HFL is breached. Also, the details of HFL breach incidents in July 2025 and August 2025 can be seen by clicking the hyperlinks.
Indus Basin: All the 6 HFL crossing incidents including 2 on Jhelum river, 3 on its tributaries and 1 on Chenab river have occurred on a single day of Sept 3, 2025. The Bardoh site is on Manwar Tawi river a tributary of Chenab River and not on Chenab itself as mentioned by the CWC on its hydrograph.
Jhelum at Khanabal site had crossed the June 2015 HFL just a week back on Aug. 27, 2025. Despite being an old site, the CWC upgraded the Aug 2025 HFL even before the end of monsoon season. Additionally, the Lidder river at Ganeshpora site and Chenab at Dharmari site missed crossing the respective HFLs on the same day with very small margins. CWC has also wrongly listed Dharmari site on Chenab River though it is located on a tributary of Chenab.
Table 1: Rivers crossing HFL in Indus Basin Sept. 2025
| SN | Site/ River | District/ State | Old HFL/ Date | New HFL/ Time/ Date | Rise/ Duration/ Year/ |
| 1 | Khanabal/ Jhelum | Anantnag/ J&K | 1594.84 m/ 27.08.2025 | 1595.43 m/ 23:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | +0.59 m/ ~22 hrs/s 7 days |
| 1594.5 m/ 25.06.2015 | |||||
| 2 | Fatehpora/ Jhelum | Ganderbal/ J&K | 1585.2 m/ 26.06.2023 | 1585.65 m/ 16:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | +0.63 m/ ~10 hrs/ 2 yr |
| 3 | Kralpora/ Doodhganga | Budgam/ J&K | 1594.22 m/ 22.06.2022 | 1594.3 m/ 12:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | +0.08 m/ ~04 hrs/ 03 yr |
| 4 | Watchi/ Rambaira | Pulwama/ J&K | 1593.33 m/ 22.06.2022 | 1595.29 m/ 17:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | +1.96 m/ ~24 hrs/ 03 yr |
| 5 | Arwani/ Vishow | Anantnag/ J&K | 1593.81 m/ 22.0.2022 | 1594.89 m/ 17:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | +1.08 m/ ~24 hrs/ 03 yr |
| 6 | Bardoh/ (Manwar Tawi) Chenab | Jammu / J&K | 282.455 m/ NA | 283.395 m/ 10:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | +0.94 m/ ~19 hrs/ NA |
Ganga Basin: All the six sites in Ganga basin are part of Yamuna River system and 5 HFL breaches have been registered on the main stem of Yamuna itself in first and second week of Sept. 2025. All these sites had attained the old HFL in July 2023.
Additionally, there have been 5 sites in Yamuna basin of which 4 are on Yamuna’s tributaries and 1 on main stem of Yamuna, where flood level reached quite close to the respective HFLs in Sept. 2025. Of these 5 sites, HFLs on 3 sites were attained in July 2023. At Rahimpur site in Faridabad district, the Yamuna missed crossing the July 2023 HFL by just 0.08 meter. The detail of these sites can be seen in table 6 in the end.
The Sonar river at Narshinghgarh site has been flowing in extreme floods since Sept. 18 till now. The CWC has removed the Oct. 2024 HFL from the hydrograph two days after the river crossed the HFL in Sept. 2025. Due to construction of Sitaram dam the site has come into its submergence area which is the main reason behind river showing extreme flood situation there for several days. The CWC has planned to shift the site downstream the dam.
Table 2: Rivers crossing HFL in Yamuna Basin Sept. 2025
| SN | Site/ River | District/ State | Old HFL/ Date | New HFL/ Time/ Date | Rise/ Duration/ Year/ |
| 1 | Manjhawali/ Yamuna | Faridabad/ Haryana | 194.18 m/ 14.07.2023 | 194.19 m/ 12:00 hr/ 05.09.2025 | +0.01 m/ ~17 hrs/ 02 yr |
| 2 | Mohna/ Yamuna | Faridabad/ Haryana | 192.44 m/ 14.07.2023 | 192.45 m/ 10:00 hr/ 06.09.2025 | +0.01 m/ ~12 hrs/ 02 yr |
| 3 | Shergarh/ Yamuna | Mathura/ UP | 177.32 m/ 16.07.2023 | 177.35 m/ 11:00 hr/ 07.09.2025 | +0.03 m ~19 hrs/ 02 yr |
| 4 | Mathura/ Yamuna | Mathura/ UP | 166.22 m/ 17.07.2023 | 166.5 m/ 09:00 hr/ 08.09.2025 | +0.28 m/ ~59 hrs/ 02 yr |
| 166.17 m/ 26.09.2010 | |||||
| 5 | Bateshwar/ Yamuna | Agra/ UP | 133.81 m/ 20.07.2023 | 135.02 m/ 02:00 hr/ 11.09.2025 | +1.21 m/ ~150 hrs/ 02 yr |
| 6 | Narsinghgarh/ Sonar | Damoh/ MP | 337.5 m/ 10.10.2024 | 338.01 m/ 12:00/ 28.09.2025 | + 0.51 m/ 18.09.2025 onwards 01 yr |
Tapi Basin: The Girna river at Dahigaon site has crossed its HFL on Sept. 29, 2025 after 19 years.
Table 3: Rivers crossing HFL in Tapi Basin Sept. 2025
| SN | Site/ River | District/ State | Old HFL/ Date | New HFL/ Date | Rise/ Duration/ Year/ |
| 1 | Talaswada/ Nalganga | Buldhana/ Maharashtra | 227.3 m/ 19.07.2023 | 228.4 m/ 16:00 hr/ 16.09.2025 | +1.1 m/ `~06 hrs/ 02 yr |
| 2 | Dahigaon/ Girna | Jalgaon/ Maharashtra | 222.1 m 08.08.2006 | 222.21 m/ 06:00 hr/ 29.09.2025 | +0.20 m/ ~05 hrs/ 19 yrs |
Godavari Basin: Shivna river at Lasur site crossed the HFL by significant margin of 1.7 meter on Sept. 28, 2025.
Table 4: Rivers crossing HFL in Godavari Basin Sept. 2025
| SN | Site/ River | District/ State | Old HFL/ Date | New HFL/ Time/ Date | Rise/ Duration/ Year/ |
| 1 | Lasur/ Shivna | Aurangabad/ Maharashtra | 513.5 m/ 18.09.2021 | 515.2 m/ 12:00 hr/ 28.09.2025 | +1.7 m/ ~07 yrs/ 04 yr |
Krishna Basin: When the Kagina river crossed the HFL at Jewangi site CWC record mentioned its HFL 426.96 meter dated 15.08.1990 but after a day it was changed to 427.8 meter dated 14.10.2020.
Table 5: Rivers crossing HFL in Krishna Basin in Sept. 2025
| SN | Site/ River | District/ State | Old HFL/ Date | New HFL/ Time/ Date | Rise/ Duration/ Year/ |
| 1 | Wadakbal/ Sina | Solapur/ Maharashtra | 429.33 m/ 16.10.2020 | 430.6 m/ NA/ 24.09.2025 | +1.27 m/ NA/ 05 yr |
| 2 | Jewangi/ Kagina | Ranga Reddy/ Telangana | 427.8 m/ 14.10.2020 | 428.28 m/ 10:00 hr/ 27.09.2025 | +0.48 m/ ~07 hrs/ 05 yr |
| 426.96 m/ 15.08.1990 | |||||
| 3 | Yadgir/ Bhima | Yadgir/ Karnataka | 362.023 m/ 16.10.2020 | 362.653 m/ 06:00 hr/ 29.09.2025 | +0.53 m/ ~31 hrs/ 05 yrs |
River Flowing Close to HFL: Apart from HFL breach incidents at 18 sites, we could track 12 sites where flood water level in respective rivers have come close to their HFLs in Sept. 2025. These sites are located in 3 river basins 8 in Ganga and 2 each in Indus and Godavari across 7 States and UT including 3 in Himachal Pradesh, 2 each in J&K, Haryana & Bihar and 1 each in West Bengal, Maharashtra & Karnataka.
Table 6: Rivers reaching close to HFL in Sept. 2025
| SN | River/ Site | District/ State | HFL/ Date | Peak Level/ Time/ Date | Gap |
| 1 | Ganeshpora/ Lidder | Anantnag/ J&K | 1871.78 m/ 28.08.2016 | 1871.75 m/ 07:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | -0.03 m |
| 2 | Dharmari/ Chenab | Reasi/ J&K | 585.04 m/ 28.07.2022 | 584.99 m/ 12:00 hr/ 03.09.2025 | -0.05 m |
| 3 | Meenus/ Meenus | Sirmaur/ HP | 735.3 m/ 10.07.2023 | 734.9 m/ 06:00 hr/ 01.09.2025 | -0.4 m |
| 4 | Kheri/ Giri | Sirmaur/ HP | 785.8 m/ 18.08.2019 | 785.2 m/ 07:00 hr/ 01.09.2025 | -0.6 m |
| 5 | Dadahu/ Giri | Sirmaur/ HP | 629.02 m/ 18.08.2019 | 628.95 m/ 07:00 hr/ 01.09.2025 | -0.07 m |
| 6 | Ghodopipli/ Maskara | Yamuna Nagar/ Haryana | 271.35 m/ 12.07.2023 | 270.75 m/ 20:00 hr/ 01.09.2025 | -0.6 m |
| 7 | Rahimpur/ Yamuna | Palwal/ Haryana | 186.49 m/ 16.07.2023 | 186.41 m/ 12:00 hr/ 06.09.2025 | -0.08 m |
| 8 | Benibad/ Bagmati | Muzaffarpur/ Bihar | 50.01 m/ 12.07.2004 | 49.75 m/ 13:00 hr/ 19.09.2025 | -0.26 m |
| 9 | Birpur/ Kosi | Supaul/ Bihar | 76.11 m/ 29.09.2024 | 75.9 m/ 02:00 hr/ 16.09.2025 | -0.21 m |
| 76.02 m/ 13.07.2019 | |||||
| 10 | Mekhliganj/ Teesta | Cooch Bihar/ W Bengal | 66.62 m/ 20.10.2021 | 66.46 m/ 20:00 hr/ 14.09.2025 | 0.16 m |
| 11 | Pachegaon/ Parvara | Ahmednagar/ Maharashtra | 478 m/ 07.08.2006 | 477.88 m/ 19:00 hr/ 28.09.2025 | -0.12 m |
| 12 | Saigaon/ Manjira | Bidar/ Karnataka | 556.08 m/ 06.09.1969 | 555.42 m/ 08:00 hr/ 29.09.2025 | -0.66 m |
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