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Mumbai beaches resemble garbage dumps as heavy rains wash trash ashore
The Ocean Cleanup identified Mumbai as one of 30 critical cities worldwide that together account for nearly a third of global river-based plastic emissions into the ocean
- PUBLISHED: Tue 28 Jul 2026, 4:35 PM
Heavy rains have been lashing Mumbai and the surrounding areas for the past few days, resulting in the dumping of hundreds of tonnes of garbage. Trash, including plastic, often ends up in the sea around the year, and gets washed ashore during the stormy monsoon season.
Several beaches of Mumbai now resemble mega garbage dumps as all the waste has been dumped back on to the shore by the waves.
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic body, estimates 2,500 metric tonnes of garbage have been dumped in recent days along some of the major beaches in the metropolis. They include plastic waste, household junk, clothes and other stuff.
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Authorities restricted approach to beaches such as Juhu, which attracts tens of thousands of people daily, as the waste has blanketed the beach in garbage and junk. Several videos of Mumbai’s littered beaches have been flooding social media, revealing the shocking state of the city’s coastal belt. On Tuesday, the civic body deployed scores of workers and excavators in a cleanup operation along the major beaches. Juhu, in the northwestern suburb of Santacruz, is among the most polluted beaches in the world, ranked among the top 10 in a 2025 analysis.
Another study by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, which analyses marine pollution around the world, found the sea surrounding Mumbai to be among the most polluted. Juhu has the highest quantity of microplastics litter at over 55 per cent, followed by beaches at Versova, Dadar and Aksa.
The Ocean Cleanup, a Netherlands-based organisation, identified Mumbai as one of 30 critical cities worldwide that together account for nearly a third of global river-based plastic emissions into the ocean. Nearly 5 million kilos of plastic waste flow into the Arabian sea from about 50 ‘nallahs’ (drains). Creeks in Thane, Malad and Vasai were the three largest contributors to plastic pollution, it said.
“Trash flows across the length of the ‘nallahs,’ carrying it into the ocean, mangroves, coastline and beaches,” Boyan Slat, founder of TOC, told the media earlier this year. “This impacts 220 km of coastline, 152 sq km of mangroves, 107 protected species, and nearly 1.9 million livelihoods dependent on coastal and marine ecosystems.”
A study conducted by the BMC’s sewerage department found Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) levels as high as 100mg per litre of seawater in samples from Bandra and Versova, which are 10 times higher than the 10mg per litre limit for coastal water, prescribed by India’s Central Pollution Control Board.
