India, Sept. 1 -- The water level in the Hathnikund barrage rose to over 3.50 lakh cusec, the highest this monsoon, on Monday amid heavy rainfall in the catchment areas, prompting "high flood" alerts for Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi, even as incessant rain battered Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Irrigation and water resources department (Yamunanagar) superintendent engineer RS Mittal said that the level touched 3.50 lakh cusecs at 10am.

The 70,000 cusecs to 1.5 lakh cusecs is considered "low flood", 1.5 lakh cusecs to 2.5 lakh cusecs is "medium flood", and above 2.5 lakh cusecs is "high flood". One cusec is equal to 28.32 litres per second.

Mittal said the water was likely to enter low-lying areas of Haryana and take 48 to 72 hours ...