Striving for a day’s catch in the Yamuna on a monsoon morning

The Yamuna in Delhi is mostly a ‘dead river’; but come the monsoon and fishers return to it to try their luck

Striving for a day’s catch in the Yamuna on a monsoon day

A fisherman casts his line into the frothy Yamuna at the Okhla Barrage in Delhi as clouds gather in the sky.Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE

Published on:

28 Jul 2026, 12:25 pm

Listen to this article

A fisherman casts his line in the rain near Okhla Barrage in Delhi, as dark skies and churning waters frame a determined search for the day’s catch.

The summer monsoon brings life into the river as water from the catchment causes fish and aquatic life to spawn.Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE

During the summer monsoon, the Yamuna, otherwise an ‘almost’ dead river, comes back to life in the national capital.

As water from its catchment areas upstream reaches Delhi, fish and other aquatic life spawn and are caught by fishers.

Fish in the Delhi stretch of the Yamuna though are constantly threatened by heavy pollution and low water flows.Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE

However, the fish stocks in the Yamuna face a precarious existence as they are severely threatened due to heavy industrial and domestic pollution (look at the toxic froth in these photographs), low environmental water flow, and periodic mass mortality events.

Delhi