Heavy rains in Mumbai have brought the city to a standstill with many parts of the city flooding.?
Intermittent heavy showers continued to lash Mumbai a day after it was battered and shattered by stormy weather that left a trail of destruction, fallen trees or branches, hundreds of vehicles submerged or broken down.
A minor landslide occurred when a portion of a hillock at the posh Malabar Hill crashed down near Pedder Road, but luckily there were no casualties.
In the past 24 hours, many areas of south Mumbai witnessed their maiden floods, including those which had escaped flooding during the July 26, 2005 Great Floods, when the city recorded a staggering 160 cms rainfall in a 24-hour period.
Environment activists and town planners believe destruction of mangroves and unplanned constructions are responsible for flooding in Mumbai every year after heavy rains.
Mangroves absorb excess water but they are being destroyed in Mumbai in the guise of infrastructure development, city-based environmentalist Debi Goenka told news agency?PTI.
"Destruction of mangroves has definitely been one of the major causes of flooding, since the land reclaimed from mangroves is now blocking the rain water from flowing out into the sea. The capacity of mangroves to absorb flood water has also reduced," he said.
He added that the government agencies which are responsible for the protection of mangroves are busy "destroying them in the guise of infrastructure development."
"To construct a road, transmission lines, or a freight corridor, the natural infrastructure - mangroves - provided to us free of cost by nature is being destroyed," he rued.
"We need to seriously review our priorities in this era of climate change, global warming and sea level rise. Do we need more roads or do we need to keep the mangroves intact?" Goenka said.
Similar concerns have also been raised by agencies like the Mangrove Society of India (MSI), which in its 2019 report stated that 75 cases of mangrove destruction have been reported on Maharashtra's coast line, of which the maximum share is of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The society has been documenting and conducting various researches on mangroves since 1990 across the country.