Every year in June, as monsoon comes to Mahabaleshwar, the residents know how to prepare for the next four months. They ready their coal-heaters, umbrellas and, if they can afford, de-humidifiers. They also wait for tourists to drive down to enjoy the monsoon. But this year, things were different. Tourists were fewer and the rainfall extreme. Part of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra and surrounded by valleys, Mahabaleshwar got more rain between June 1 and August 8 than Cherrapunjee in Meghalaya, which holds the Guinness Record as the wettest place in the world. The hill station, located 285 km south east of Mumbai, got 6,031.5 mm of rain, against 5,397.5 mm in Cherrapunjee. The all-time high for total rainfall in August in Mahabaleshwar is 4,007.4 mm, back in 1900. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), in the first eight days of August, Mahabaleshwar got 200 mm-300 mm of rain every day. Says Vishal Ramchandran, Assistant Scientist, IMD, Mahabaleshwar, “The town is known to get heavy rainfall. The anomaly was the strong, intense spell. My concern was taking accurate reading of the same.” The IMD, Mahabaleshwar, records rainfall twice a day, 8:30 am and 5:30 pm. However, while the Mahabaleshwar rain had the rest of the country buzzing, Ramchandran says they didn’t realise this right away. It was only later that some “worry” set in when they came to know the town was “the rainiest in the country”. Over the past 10 years, rainfall has been declining in Cherrapunjee, which entered the record books with 24,555 mm of annual rain in 1974. This year’s reading, till August 30, was 6,023.9 mm, a negative departure of 1,442.8 mm from 2018. Experts say the reason for both that and Mahabaleshwar getting rainier is changes in topography and weather systems. “The Bay of Bengal branch of monsoon winds that bring rain to Northeast states have been weak this time. Factors such as urbanisation and depletion of green cover should be studied. On the other hand the Arabian Sea branch has been strong, resulting in above average rainfall for not just Mahabaleshwar but also entire western Maharashtra,” says Akshay Deoras, independent meteorologist and PhD researcher at the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK. But Mahabaleshwar handles its rains better than most. On August 4, it got 305.8 mm of rainfall over 24 hours. The same day Mumbai got 204 mm, and went under. Putting on an electric heater to reduce the dampness in the air, Amita Dagde-Patil, Chief Officer, Mahabaleshwar Municipal Council, says, “We don’t have any infrastructure problems barring some branches falling and electricity cuts. Before the monsoon, the drains are cleaned. We are an eco-sensitive area, and hence there is no unplanned urbanisation. The natural course of rainwater flow has not been altered with.” An eco-sensitive tag means restrictions on mining, industries and construction in the area. With a population of 13,000 and floating numbers of over 30,000 during weekends and peak tourist season, the plateau town, spread over 25 sq km, generates roughly 7.5 tonnes of waste every day, which is nearly all segregated and processed. In the Union government’s Swachh Survekshan 2019 survey, the town secured an all-India rank of 8, an improvement from 19 in 2018. The highlight are the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on 2,500 dustbins, both public and personal, installed over the past two years. “The RFID tags register details of the house to which the dustbins belong, the owner’s name, as well as the timing of the garbage collection. Every household and commercial property has been given dustbins. Waste is not collected if not segregated at source,” says Dagde-Patil. With hotels and restaurants running till late night, the Municipal Council has begun night-sweeping in the market area and garbage collection post-midnight. Since 2012, the town has had a complete plastic ban. With two sewage treatment plants of total 5 million litres per day capacity, and a plan for three more, the Municipal Council recently approved a proposal to treat the water to sell it to commercial bodies for Rs 300 per 2,000 litres. But, similar to cities, the rains do exacerbate the problem of potholes and broken roads. The Mahabaleshwar Municipal Council has been struggling, with Rs 2.5 crore of its Rs 75 crore budget set aside to fill potholes this financial year. There is another worry. Mahabaleshwar supplies over 80 per cent of the country’s strawberries, which may be affected if the rains continue. Strawberry planting begins in September. Says strawberry farmer Santosh Mohite, “Last year, the rains continued till September. It killed the plants. If we plant late, strawberries will not be ready by Diwali, when we have the highest number of tourists.” During monsoon and the off season for strawberries, some farmers cultivate potatoes, French beans and peas. However, Sashikant Bhilare, another strawberry farmer, points out, “The rainfall and heavy winds killed our young potato plants this year. They are all rotten.” Pushplata Dhanak, who has been living in Mahabaleshwar for 11 years, worries about the rising cost of using coal heaters. “There will be no sign of sunlight till October. We don’t use the heater to keep warm but to dry clothes and reduce the dampness inside the hut. I spend Rs 100 extra every day for five months.” Businessmen and restaurant owner Ajay Purohit, however, clings on to hope about what the tag of “the rainiest town” might mean. “We want the Tourism Department to market the town not only as a summer destination but also a monsoon one,” he says. For now though, the customers are down and, packing his leather goods at his shop, Ganesh Gaikwad warns, “I have been living here 15 years. Usually, we get some customers during long weekends like the August 15th one, but this year, no one came.” Then he cheers up. “Maybe we will be lucky next year. After all our town is the rainiest.”
