'100 mm of chaos': How Bengaluru floods faster than it builds
Produced by: Manoj Kumar
Drain Disaster
Bengaluru’s drains aren’t just clogged—they’re criminally neglected. Overflowing with years-old garbage and silt, they’re turning every downpour into a citywide swamp.
Urban Overload
Once a garden city, now a concrete trap. Bengaluru’s breakneck, unplanned urban sprawl has erased lakes, green cover, and open soil—leaving the rain with nowhere to go but the streets.
Basin Blues
Mahadevapura, Kengeri, HSR Layout—low-lying, flood-prone, and repeatedly ignored. These neighborhoods are drowning not just in rainwater, but in years of civic apathy.
Ignored Alerts
Each year, flood-prone zones are flagged. And each year, only a few get fixed. Chronic under-maintenance is turning a known issue into a recurring civic disaster.
Upside-Down Drains
In parts of the city, the drains are literally above the roads. Rainwater can’t flow in, so it pools on streets—and in homes. It’s a design flaw so absurd, it feels dystopian.
Gridlock Drown
Rains in Bengaluru don’t just flood roads—they freeze them. One downpour and tech corridors like Outer Ring Road become car graveyards, with traffic jams stretching for hours.
Toppled Trees
Bengaluru’s trees are iconic—but also dangerously fragile in the rains. Uprooted trunks crush cars, block emergency vehicles, and turn streets into obstacle courses.
Budget Gaps
Despite crores in allocations, the stormwater network is patchy and outdated. Much of the funding trickles into paperwork, while crucial upgrades are left high and dry.
Sky Rage
Climate change is rewriting Bengaluru’s forecast—100 mm rainfalls in a day, unexpected cloudbursts. The city’s 20th-century infrastructure isn’t built for this 21st-century storm surge.