The unprecedented downpour overwhelmed the city’s outdated stormwater infrastructure. The chaos exposed not only the city’s fragile urban planning but also the wider ecological risks of climate change, as rising global temperatures amplify extreme weather events

A record rainfall of 130 mm in 12 hours from the 18th May evening till the dawn of 19th May led to the flooding of houses, overflowing of city lakes, streets and underpasses being reduced to waterways, flyovers remaining closed for traffic for several hours, and halting public bus services in many parts of the city etc. Essential travels in the city remained disrupted for a large part of 19th May. Branches of trees have fallen and in some cases, the whole tree has been uprooted. Power outage in the city made matters worse and BESCOM received 33,000 calls in this period for restoration of power.

More than 20 lakes in Bengaluru have overflown adding further misery to the citizens. It was the second-highest rainfall in a single day in a decade and BBMP found that things had gone out of hand. Agencies do their best to mitigate the misery of the people. The worst part of the story was that the two persons were electrocuted while trying to connect power to run the motors to drain out water from the houses and another human death also took place in the floods. State disaster response force deployed boats to evacuate people from flooded locations.

While Bengaluru’s stormwater drains have a capacity of 70 mm of rain in 24 hours, the rain gauges located at Kengeri, Vaderhalli, Chikkabanavara, Chowdeshwarinagar and Kempegowda wards registered 132 mm, 131 mm, 127 mm, 104 mm, and 103 mm of rains in 12 hours’ period respectively. Other areas like Kormangala, Baswangudi, Marthahalli, and HAL Airport also recorded more than 90 mm of rain. When the rains exceed the capacity of stormwater drains, flooding the streets and houses is inevitable. Flooding was not limited to low-lying areas alone but the areas........

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