Bengaluru under water yet again

The monsoon is yet to hit the western coast of India. However, the pre-monsoon showers this week have brought Bengaluru, the IT capital of the country, to its knees. Major arterial roads were flooded, Hosur Road in the south was closed for traffic, and in several inundated residential localities, including Sri Sai Layout at Horamavu in the north-eastern part of the city and S.T. Bed Layout in the south-east, boats were deployed to rescue people.The scenes were reminiscent of the floods in the city in 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2022, all of which were during the peak monsoon season or in the post-monsoon period. But this time, the pre-monsoon showers have led to floods and mayhem. Four people have lost their lives in tree-fall, compound wall collapse, and electrocution incidents.

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It is mostly in April that the civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), wakes up to the monsoon, which usually hits the city in the first or second week of June. On May 5 this year, Additional Chief Secretary Tushar Giri Nath, who also holds the charge as Administrator of the BBMP, and the new Chief Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao, held a meeting to review “monsoon preparedness”. Civic officials were directed to pull their socks up and carry out works ahead of the onset of the monsoon. As per a statement issued after this meeting, of the 209 flood-prone spots, interventions were carried out at 166 and zonal officials were asked to visit and attend to 43 other flood-prone spots, dredge drains along 82 road stretches that were flagged as prone to flooding by the traffic police, and finish the annual maintenance work along 175-km-long storm-water drains (SWDs).A tree that crashed following heavy rain being cleared by civic workers at Banashankari 2nd Stage in Bengaluru on May 19, 2025.The fact that annual maintenance work of the crucial SWDs is still under way, just days ahead of the onset of monsoon, indicates that it is “business as usual”.

Need for a paradigm shift As the city prepares for the monsoon, the pre-monsoon showers — often accompanied by squalls and thunderstorms — wreak more damage. In May 2023, a woman died when the car she was travelling in got submerged in the K.R. Circle underpass, a stone’s throw away from the Vidhana Soudha in the city centre.Experts have called for “a paradigm shift” and said the authorities should focus on preparing for pre-monsoon showers so that by April every year, the city is “rain-ready”.