Picture having a cup of chai (tea) by the Marine Drive with the drizzle moistening your hair, the first raindrops of the Mumbai monsoon are poetic. They tap against windows, soften the city’s skyline, and bring respite from the torrid summer heat. But as the rain gathers strength, this poetry turns into panic. Roads disappear under water, trains grind to a halt, and office-goers wade through ankle-deep and sometimes waist-deep, murky streets. Each monsoon, floodwaters return and, with them, the familiar disruption of life in one of the world’s biggest cities.

The outdated infrastructure, vanishing wetlands, and climate change — together have made monsoons in Mumbai worse with every passing year. And we have tried to break down the science behind it!

1. Mumbai’s geography

To understand why Mumbai floods, you need to look at where it stands, quite literally. Originally a group of seven islands, the city was stitched together through centuries of land reclamation projects. Much of modern Mumbai sits barely above sea level, and some neighbourhoods, like parts of Dadar, Mahim, and Kurla, are below the high tide mark.

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