New Delhi: Delhi is divided into multiple zones for the purpose of administration and development. Zone O is the Yamuna flood plain.On May 23, the Delhi high court stated that the “existence of any residential colonies in Zone ‘O’ would be completely impermissible and would also not be conducive to the environment as also to the river bed area.”Further, the court noted, “The protection from punitive action exists only till December 31, 2026 for these residents.”The court made the observation while hearing a case between one Vijay Kumar Diwakar and Municipal Corporation of South Delhi and others pertaining to the legal status of the houses constructed in Zone O. The last house in Jaitpur, Delhi as seen from the bank of Yamuna. Photo: Vipul Kumar.The judgment, and later, demolition drives carried out in different areas of Delhi have created panic among the residents in the Zone O area.The definition of Zone O comes from the Master Plan for Delhi 2021. It states that this area is ecologically sensitive and that it is important to protect the Yamuna from degradation. It notes that “rapid urbanisation and encroachments” are among the reasons for the “dwindling of water flow and high levels of pollutants in the Yamuna river.”Yamuna river. Photo: Vipul Kumar.The same master plan mentions multiple other causes of pollution in the Yamuna, such as the need for the treatment of drain water before it flows into the river, sewering unsewered areas, and the treatment of industrial effluents.According to an affidavit submitted before the high court by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, there are over 91 colonies and one lakh houses in these areas. Zone O comprises over 7% of the total urban area of Delhi and houses a population of over five to six lakh.A Facebook post by the Delhi government says the population in Zone O is 15 lakh.A Zone O notice board in Jaitpur, Delhi. Photo: Vipul Kumar.After several rounds of protests by residents living in these areas, Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta has assured them that no existing structures would be touched and that the judgment applied only to new constructions. However, locals have little to no confidence in her words. Yamuna Flood plain as seen from Sonia Vihar. Photo: Vipul Kumar.The Wire visited three localities in Delhi, all on the banks of the Yamuna where Zone O boards have been installed by the government – Sonia Vihar in North Delhi, Yamuna Bazar in Central Delhi, and Jaitpur in South Delhi.Pradeep Tiwari, a software engineer and a resident of Sonia Vihar. Photo: Vipul Kumar.Thirty-seven-year-old Pradeep Tiwari, a software engineer by profession, has been living in Sonia Vihar, an area in North Delhi on the bank of the Yamuna river, for two decades.Referring to the court’s judgment and the chief minister’s assurance contradicting the judgement, he says, “It has created confusion, and the anxiety of losing our homes persists.”‘All I know is panditai’The Delhi government has conducted demolition drives in Kalindi Kunj and Yamuna Bazar areas. Residents from other parts of the city where Zone O notices have been installed post the May 23 high court order fear they will be next.The anxiety of losing their homes has brought local leaders from both the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) together.Birendra Kumar, an AAP leaders who lives in Sonia Vihar, has been organising rallies and signature campaigns to create awareness among residents and unite them to demand the removal of their colony from the demarcation zone.Using a megaphone to talk to a small crowd gathered near the Balaji temple in the area, he says: “They [chief minister and ministers] are saying that our heads are safe, and all we are asking is, take the sword away from our neck.”Birendra Kumar, a Sonia Vihar resident and AAP leader. Photo: Vipul Kumar.Birendra Kumar was talking about scrapping Zone O. In his protests, he demands that a law be made by parliament to protect their colony.Shiv Kumar, a retired government employee and Sonia Vihar resident. Photo: Vipul Kumar.Similarly, a retired government employee Shiv Kumar from the area says, “I have invested my life’s savings into my house. I’ll not be able to rebuild if my house gets demolished.”The panic among residents was triggered by over 300 notice boards installed in Delhi, mostly this June, claiming that the areas fall under Zone O. The Wire found out that many of these areas were as far as 2.5 kilometers from the stream of the Yamuna river.The anxiety in other supposedly Zone O areas multiplied following a demolition on June 27 in Yamuna Bazar, a locality in Old Delhi where over 300 structures were demolished on the Yamuna ghats. Contrary to chief minister Gupta’s claim, many of the structures that were demolished were hundreds of years old, residents claim. The ruins of demolished houses in Yamuna Bazar, Delhi. Photo: Vipul Kumar.The area is populated mostly by those who perform Hindu rituals like cremation, asthi visarjan (immersion of ashes), and the Yamuna aarti (a religious ritual to honour Yamuna) for a living.Pramila Sharma leaves Yamuna Bazar with her belongings. Photo: Vipul Kumar.“My ancestors were living here long before independence. I don’t know what I’ll do after leaving these ghats; all I know is panditai (a Brahmin performing rituals for a living),” says 42-year-old Pramila Sharma, a single mother, while moving her belongings away from her demolished house to a new rented location. The police barred media persons and even people whose houses were demolished from entering the demolition site.A notice, provided to a resident who lost his house, mentioned that there will be a demolition exercise. It also listed three night shelters where affected families could live temporarily. The Wire has previously reported that the night shelters in Delhi are already overcrowded and in poor living condition.A family on a road in Yamuna Bazar, Delhi after their house was demolished. Photo: Vipul Kumar.One of the colonies with a sizable population is Jaitpur, a densely populated area on the border of Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, spread over four to five square kilometers, housing a population that runs into lakhs. Most of the residential area is on the other side of the Yamuna river, separated by a pushta (a flood protection wall) which also serves as a road. This wall itself is at least one kilometer from the stream of the Yamuna as of now. Many notice boards are installed much beyond that wall.BJP MP from North East Delhi Manoj Tiwari himself accepts that wherever a Zone O board has been installed beyond the pushta, it is erroneous and needs to be corrected. The houses in Sonia Vihar are also beyond the pushta flood protection wall.‘I have not been able to sleep or eat properly’“I don’t know what they want. They are demolishing houses everywhere – in Delhi, in Haryana, in Faridabad,” 62-year-old Ratan Singh Rawat, who lives in the Jaitpur area says.Ratan Singh Rawat in Jaitpur. Photo: Vipul Kumar.He believes that the government is discriminating against the poor population and especially migrants.“I request all migrants who have been living in this city, away from their villages for jobs, to provide education to their children and stop doing menial jobs. It is only then these capitalists will not be able to find a driver, janitor, cook, or street vendor. Maybe then the government’s eyes will open and they will not destroy middle-class and poor people’s houses,” Rawat adds. Jatipur in Delhi. Photo: Vipul Kumar.“Since these Zone O boards went up, I have not been able to sleep or eat properly,” says Mamta Devi, a homemaker from Jaitpur, who could not stop her tears.BJP member Pankaj Rai who lives in an area demarcated as Zone O. Photo: Vipul Kumar.Pankaj Rai, a BJP leader from the area, takes this reporter to the bank of the Yamuna and, pointing toward a group of high-rise buildings on the eastern side of the river, asks, “See these tall buildings? Look how close they are to the Yamuna, but no one is going to touch them. Yet our colony, which is much farther from these buildings to the Yamuna, comes under Zone O.”Buildings on the Uttar Pradesh side of Yamuna can be seen from Jaitpur, Delhi. Photo: Vipul Kumar.While he is right about the buildings being closer to the Yamuna, that area is located in Noida Sector 128, which is in Uttar Pradesh.On the government not decontaminating the Yamuna and going after the houses of poor people in the name of the the river, Rai says, “They keep doing photo sessions cleaning the Yamuna, but it has been in the same poor state for the last 15-20 years,” while pointing toward the rotting, stinking water filled with garbage.