Delhi faces frequent dust-storms during summer, though the ones this year probably were exceptionally severe. But are you aware that once a freak tornado had struck Delhi?

It happened 40 years back. On 17^th of March 1978, to be precise. Very few people know or remember the freak tornado that swept parts of Delhi that day. Not surprisingly, I found just a few references to this freak event on the internet. In fact, there is no first-person witness account at all. At least I could not find one. There is, however, a blog post where the author recounts this incident from news sources. There is also a research report analysing the causes of the tornado. However, I have a vivid recollection of the events of that evening.

I was watching television in the living room of our 4^th floor apartment. Suddenly, I sensed the build-up of a dust-storm. As was the routine in such cases, one rushed to remove the clothes drying in the balcony and to shut and secure all windows and doors. I shut the living room windows and rushed to the balcony to gather clothes drying there. It was then that I noticed a big piece, which appeared like a tin sheet, floating away in the gale a few meters in front of me. I was taken aback as it was not a usual sight. Normally, one would see bits and pieces of papers or clothes flying in the sandy dust and hear doors and windows banging and glass panes breaking. This big metal piece could badly hurt someone, I thought. The ferocity of sound was also more than usual, though it did not register at that time.

As is usual, the storm died down in a few minutes. As per the reverse routine post the storms, I opened the windows and the balcony doors. As I stepped into the balcony the weather had turned very pleasant as the sky had cleared and temperature had dropped a few degrees. Looking out, however, the scene in front of my eyes looked very strange. I could not make out why it was so. As my brain was working hard to find out what was out of ordinary, my eyes were observing a traffic jam on the road in the distance. I called my brother to the balcony and pointed out the traffic jam on the road. And then suddenly it struck both of us. We could see the road!

The scene looked very strange and we could see the road!

In the normal course, the road (Mall Road) was not clearly visible from our house because of the large number of trees lining the road as well as the area in between. The tree line was indicative of where the road was, but we could not see the traffic moving on the road, except for some fleeting glimpses between trees. But now it was all visible, clearly.

The massive transmission towers had simply disappeared!

Just as this discovery was sinking in, it suddenly dawned on us that the massive transmission towers of the All India Radio that were bang between us and the road had disappeared! They were nowhere to be seen! Now this was serious. We realised that the storm must have caused some serious damage and probably that was also the reason for the traffic jam. Both of us rushed downstairs and on to the Mall Road, a distance of a few hundred yards. On the way we noticed the transmission towers lying prostrate.

As we reached Mall Road we were taken aback. Several injured people were being put into the passing vehicles and rushed to the hospitals. It is common for people to take shelter at bus-stands or under the trees to protect themselves during rains or storms. Even the scooter riders stop their vehicles under the trees and wait for the rain/storm to pass. It seemed that people waiting at the bus stands and under the trees were hit by falling trees and flying debris.

Looking at the scene my brother asked me to rush back home and bring my camera. He was aware that I had returned just the previous day from a trip and had a film loaded in my camera (Very few individuals owned a camera those days. I had a second or third hand Russian one, which I had purchased from one of my friends who owned a photo studio). I rejected this out of hand as I thought we should help the injured instead. Though it felt right at that moment, later I really regretted not listening to him. By this time the sun had almost set and it was fast turning dark. I am almost certain that no one has any photograph of the immediate aftermath of the incident.

Though it felt right at that moment, later I regretted it.

Next morning, I set out with my camera to take some photographs of the devastation. Digging into my photo collection, I could find three weather-beaten photographs taken by me. These are the rare evidence of the aftermath of the tornado. The beaten down bus, that you see in one of the photographs, had rolled down from Mall Road and landed in the Khalsa College compound. As far as I recollect, the bus was empty barring the driver and the conductor. In another photograph one can see an upside-down Ambassador car. It was lifted off the petrol pump and dumped into the compound just behind, a police station, if I recall correctly. In the third photograph one can see the uprooted tree and the bare skeleton of the bus stand with its roof completely blown off. Notice that the support pillars/rods on which the roof was fixed have been twisted out of shape. This clearly demonstrates the ferocity of the tornado. This is why tornados are also called twisters.

I could see the innards of the room with twisted fans hanging from the ceiling. It was a bizarre sight.

Going around the university campus, there was plenty of evidence of the ferocity and the destructive force of the tornado. One image which is etched in my mind is of the Miranda House College building, on the side facing Khalsa College, where the road facing wall was totally blown off. From the road, I could see the innards of the room on the first floor with twisted fans hanging from the ceiling. It was a bizarre sight.

The tornado began from somewhere near the Roshanara Bagh and tore through a very narrow stretch of the Delhi University, moving alongside the Najafgarh drain and then onto the Military barracks near Probyn Road, where after it fizzled out. These barracks were very old and dilapidated and probably contributed to a large percentage of deaths in the incident. A very large number of trees in Roshanara Bagh were uprooted.

Almost 30 people lost their lives that day and hundreds were injured. Luckily, the tornado had followed a very narrow and almost straight path. The colleges and university departments had already closed for the day and students and staff had left for their homes. These two factors ensured that the fatalities and injuries were not much higher.

(Reproduction of the text and the photographs, in any form, is NOT allowed without express written permission of the Author)