It is known as India’s Sun City for its brilliant year-long weather conditions - and its palaces, forts and temples leave British tourists stunned every year.

Yet scientists warn that Jodhpur, the walled city in Rajasthan, is on the verge of being destroyed by a tide of floodwater.

In a development which might be viewed as surprising in a city surrounded by desert, leaks at the bottom of reservoirs adjoining the city have caused water to seep underground - creating an escalating crisis.

As surplus water has gradually risen under the city and leaked into people’s basements, residents have been pumping water and many have been forced to evacuate their homes. Pumps to drain out the waters have now been installed in almost all the city’s homes and commercial centres.

But scientists are warning that government inaction has turned what was once a nuisance into a full blown crisis. In the past few months – as the waters have gone up to just one metre beneath ground level in some areas – the city’s High Court and main market have been evacuated after their basements were flooded.

Structural experts have warned that the foundations of several buildings are being slowly weakened by the waters, and if Jodhpur, which is in an earthquake zone, suffers even a small tremor, it could be destroyed completely by a tide of floodwater.

“A tremor of limited intensity could destroy the very existence of the city,” RP Mathur, zonal director of the Central Ground Water Board, told India’s Mail Today newspaper.

A study by the area’s Regional Remote Sensing Centre appealed to the government to speed up its work in finding a solution to the crisis. “Water is flooding the basement in the busy market area, damaging buildings and forcing businessmen to abandon the premises at the basement and keep pumping water out of the buildings,” it said.

The government says that it is examining how to deal with the problem, but has given no timeframe for solving it.

State scientists say it has been caused by leaks in the bottom of the Kaylana-Takht Sagar reservoirs, where a far larger quantity of reserves has been stored since the Rajiv Gandhi Link Canal was diverted to the desert city in 1997 to solve a water shortage.

Ministers say they have referred the matter to India’s National Institute of Hydrology in order to urgently find a way to solve the problem.

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