diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index bb57b07b2dd..44fb9852935 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -575,6 +575,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-9082. Change the log level in WebHdfsFileSystem.initialize() from INFO
     to DEBUG. (Santhosh Nayak via cnauroth)
 
+    HDFS-7986. Allow files / directories to be deleted from the NameNode UI.
+    (Ravi Prakash via wheat9)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-8026. Trace FSOutputSummer#writeChecksumChunks rather than
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.html b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.html
index e8059154039..2fd7db6554e 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.html
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.html
@@ -117,6 +117,28 @@ <h4 class="modal-title">Create Directory</h4>
       </div>
     </div>
 
+  <div class="modal" id="delete-modal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-hidden="true">
+    <div class="modal-dialog">
+      <div class="modal-content">
+        <div class="modal-header">
+          <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal"
+            aria-hidden="true">&times;</button>
+          <h4 class="modal-title" id="delete-modal-title">Delete</h4>
+        </div>
+        <div class="modal-body">
+          <div class="panel-body">
+            <div id="delete-prompt"></div>
+          </div>
+        </div>
+        <div class="modal-footer">
+          <button type="button" class="btn" data-dismiss="modal">Cancel</button>
+          <button type="button" class="btn btn-success" id="delete-button"
+            data-complete-text="Deleting...">Delete</button>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+
       <div class="row">
       <div class="col-xs-11">
         <form onsubmit="return false;">
@@ -159,11 +181,12 @@ <h4 class="modal-title">Create Directory</h4>
             <th>Replication</th>
             <th>Block Size</th>
             <th>Name</th>
+            <th>Delete</th>
           </tr>
         </thead>
         <tbody>
           {#FileStatus}
-          <tr>
+          <tr inode-path="{pathSuffix}" class="explorer-entry">
             <td>{type|helper_to_directory}{permission|helper_to_permission}{aclBit|helper_to_acl_bit}</td>
             <td>{owner}</td>
             <td>{group}</td>
@@ -171,7 +194,8 @@ <h4 class="modal-title">Create Directory</h4>
             <td>{#helper_date_tostring value="{modificationTime}"/}</td>
             <td>{replication}</td>
             <td>{blockSize|fmt_bytes}</td>
-            <td><a style="cursor:pointer" inode-type="{type}" class="explorer-browse-links" inode-path="{pathSuffix}">{pathSuffix}</a></td>
+            <td><a inode-type="{type}" class="explorer-browse-links">{pathSuffix}</a></td>
+            <td><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-trash"></span></td>
           </tr>
           {/FileStatus}
         </tbody>
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.js b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.js
index 46f48b8e10d..e469ead8d10 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.js
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/hdfs/explorer.js
@@ -78,6 +78,29 @@
     return data.RemoteException !== undefined ? data.RemoteException.message : "";
   }
 
+  function delete_path(inode_name, absolute_file_path) {
+    $('#delete-modal-title').text("Delete - " + inode_name);
+    $('#delete-prompt').text("Are you sure you want to delete " + inode_name
+      + " ?");
+
+    $('#delete-button').click(function() {
+      // DELETE /webhdfs/v1/<path>?op=DELETE&recursive=<true|false>
+      var url = '/webhdfs/v1' + encode_path(absolute_file_path) +
+        '?op=DELETE' + '&recursive=true';
+
+      $.ajax(url,
+        { type: 'DELETE'
+        }).done(function(data) {
+          browse_directory(current_directory);
+        }).error(network_error_handler(url)
+         ).complete(function() {
+           $('#delete-modal').modal('hide');
+           $('#delete-button').button('reset');
+        });
+    })
+    $('#delete-modal').modal();
+  }
+
   function encode_path(abs_path) {
     abs_path = encodeURIComponent(abs_path);
     var re = /%2F/g;
@@ -166,7 +189,7 @@
 
         $('.explorer-browse-links').click(function() {
           var type = $(this).attr('inode-type');
-          var path = $(this).attr('inode-path');
+          var path = $(this).closest('tr').attr('inode-path');
           var abs_path = append_path(current_directory, path);
           if (type == 'DIRECTORY') {
             browse_directory(abs_path);
@@ -174,6 +197,12 @@
             view_file_details(path, abs_path);
           }
         });
+
+        $('.explorer-entry .glyphicon-trash').click(function() {
+          var inode_name = $(this).closest('tr').attr('inode-path');
+          var absolute_file_path = append_path(current_directory, inode_name);
+          delete_path(inode_name, absolute_file_path);
+        })
       });
     }).error(network_error_handler(url));
   }
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/static/hadoop.css b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/static/hadoop.css
index c13fe3f7b7e..e22611ef7fd 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/static/hadoop.css
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/webapps/static/hadoop.css
@@ -263,4 +263,7 @@ header.bs-docs-nav, header.bs-docs-nav .navbar-brand {
 
 .dfshealth-node-legend li:before {
     padding-right: 5pt;
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+.explorer-entry .explorer-browse-links { cursor: pointer; }
+.explorer-entry .glyphicon-trash { cursor: pointer; }