Traffic, water shortages, now floods bring life to standstill in India's tech hub

In the late 1980s, Harish Pullanoor would spend his weekends exploring Yemalur, a region at the time on the eastern outskirts of Bengaluru, India. His cousins would join him as they fished for little freshwater fish. Bengaluru, previously a classy city with lakes, parks, and a mild temperature, quickly developed into India's Silicon Valley in the 1990s, drawing in millions of workers and housing the regional headquarters of some of the largest IT firms in the world. The city dwellers are now paying a heavy price for untrammeled expansion. The ability of the city to absorb and siphon off the water was constrained by the replacement of green places with concrete and the development surrounding lakes' edges that shut off connected canals. Rapid urbanization in India’s start-up capital Bengaluru Early in September, flooding in Bengaluru, India's IT powerhouse, was caused by the greatest rains in decades. According to experts, the crisis was largely brought about by hurried urbanization and poor planning over the previous three decades. In 2021, the built-up area made up roughly 86% of the city's total area, compared to about 27% thirty years earlier, according to an analysis of the city's land use. The Yemalur neighborhood and some other areas of Bengaluru were inundated under waist-deep water last week following the city's biggest rains in decades, hurting the IT industry in the southern metropolis and damaging its reputation. The city's infrastructure has long been a source of discontent among the populace, who are tired of the congested traffic and water shortages during the dry season. However, monsoon flooding has brought up new concerns about the viability of rapid urbanization, particularly if weather patterns grow more irregular and intense due to climate change. "It's very, very sad," said Pullanoor, who was born close to Yemalur but now lives in the western city of Mumbai, parts of which also face occasional flooding like many of India's urban centers.