Mumbai Against the Tides: How Climate Crisis Is Crippling India’s Maximum City

In this documentary and multimedia immersive, we explore how rising sea levels are threatening Mumbai's survival.

Mumbai — India’s financial capital, city of million dreams, the maximum city, and the city of mouth-watering vada pavs — is fast becoming India’s sinking city.

(Photo: The Quint)

Mumbai — India’s financial capital, city of million dreams, the maximum city, and the city of mouth-watering vada pavs — is fast becoming India’s sinking city. Reports by several national and international think-tanks researching on climate change have indicated that most of Mumbai will be underwater by the turn of this century because of rising sea-levels, and a host of local environmental and policy issues.

How credible are these reports? What would a rise in sea level look like? What exactly is the nature of the threat to Mumbai? Who are the people at the receiving end of this problem? And what are we doing to adapt to the crisis at hand?

It’s the month of June and the western Indian city of Mumbai is gearing up for another erratic monsoon. Rains in Mumbai can be particularly tricky — it’s tough to predict when the ‘chai and pakoda’ weather will turn into a flood that will end up paralysing India’s business capital.

In a latest warning, the United Nations in its annual report on climate change has ranked Mumbai second among 20 largest coastal cities of the world which will incur major financial losses due to coastal flooding and sea-level rise. On rank one is the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The roots of Mumbai’s climate problems can be traced back to its history as a colonial port city. Mumbai, as we know it today, was once an archipelago of seven sleepy islands — Bombay, Parel, Mazgaon, Worli, Colaba, Mahim, and Old Woman’s Island also known as Little Colaba.

These seven islands underwent a series of land reclamations in the 19th and the 20th century.

Embankments were built, hills were flattened, and the rubble dumped into marsh. It took over 200 years for Mumbai to become a continuous peninsula. These reclamations, however, happened at the cost of the city’s coastal ecosystems — the mangroves, mudflats, coral reefs, creeks, and estuaries.

Over the years, as Mumbai transformed into a thriving trade and business centre, it also became the centre of India’s climate crisis.

Being a coastal city, it is at the receiving end of global climate issues like melting glacial ice and rising sea temperatures. At the same time, factors like unplanned urbanisation, destruction of swamps and coastal areas, and an overburdened drainage system serve as reminders of the threats to India’s maximum city.

To find out more, watch our documentary and explore our multimedia immersive 'Rising Waters, Sinking City: Mumbai Against the Tides' by clicking here.