Climate Change and Uncertainty in India's Maximum City, Mumbai

 During the monsoon, flooding is a typical occurrence in the city. The huge rains and
floods in the last week of July 2005 (bada paani in local vernacular, also known as the
26/7 event) killed over a thousand people and dumped about a year's worth of rain on
the city in less than 24 hours. Flooding was not a major problem for the Koli
fishermen. Instead, the infrastructural developments that have encroached on the
coast, fishing grounds, and mangrove area are posing the greatest threat to their
livelihood. Currently, the coastal road project is the most significant intervention
against which Kolis are protesting, as it threatens livelihoods and the environment.
The project to build a 29.2-kilometer motorway from north to south along Mumbai's
eastern coastline has been stymied by legal issues and will be restarted in 2020. As
indicated in an interview in January 2020, a fisherman said that during a public
hearing on the project in Khar Dhanda in 2020 praised the initiative for "finally
putting an end to the remaining fishing in our Koliwada."
 A group of female activists characterised the coastal road project and its planning as
symbolic of the lack of recognition of Koli livelihood rights, coastal ecology
sensitivity, and the top-down nature of project implementation. In terms of the
implications and uncertainties, there is a clear gender bias, with women from the
fishing community losing space and money for shore-based livelihood activities such
as pre- and post-harvest preparations.
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