The week in 5 charts | Delhi flood situation, Chandrayaan 3 launch, retail inflation, and more

Here are five charts that will help you understand some of the key stories from last week

The water level of the Yamuna River in Delhi continued to recede gradually on Saturday, July 15, allowing the city administration to pump out water from several flooded arterial roads, and re-open them for traffic. The focus has now shifted to the approximately 25,500 people displaced from their homes near the river’s floodplains, who had been evacuated to relief camps.

The Yamuna’s water level was at 206.87 metres by 8 pm on Saturday, having dropped from its peak of 208.66 metres, recorded at 8 pm on Thursday. However, the water is still above the danger mark of 205.33 metres. Moderate showers lashed part of the city in the evening, which officials said could impact the relief and restoration work.

Delhi’s iconic heritage sites faced the brunt of the floods. Purana Qila, a pre-Maurya-era remnant site, along with the Wazirabad bridge, a Tughlaq-era marvel, and Shah Alam’s tomb were partially underwater. Red Fort has been flooded the most, with parts of the 17th-century Mughal-era monument under as much as 12 feet of water. This includes the area around the ‘Musamman Burj’, the balcony from where Mughal rulers would appear for daily audience with their subjects.

The chart below shows the percentage difference between the rainfall received and the average rainfall calculated for the districts of Delhi between July 6 and July 12, 2023. Out of the data provided for 9 districts, 7 received more than twice the amount of the average rainfall. The red dots indicate a subset of the places where floods were reported. Hover over the dots to see photos from the respective localities or areas.

India’s third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, was successfully launched onboard a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2.35 pm on July 14. This is India’s second attempt at soft-landing robotic instruments on the lunar surface after the previous attempt, Chandrayaan-2, failed in 2019. Thus far, only three countries, the U.S., Russia and China, have successfully soft-landed on the moon.

Also read |Chandrayaan-3: What it takes to soft-land on the moon

Around 16 minutes after the LVM-3 lifted off, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. It was an integrated module comprising the propulsion module, the lander module, and the rover. It entered into an elliptic parking orbit (EPO). This orbit’s closest approach to earth was around 170 km and farthest, at 36,500 km.