Dahisar River
Dahisar River is a short river on Salsette Island, flowing through Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It starts from Tulsi Lake in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the northern part of the city and travels northwest for about 12 kilometers, passing through the park and areas like Sri Krishna Nagar, Daulatnagar, Leprosy Colony, and Dahisar Gaothan before reaching the Arabian Sea via Manori Creek. Its catchment area is about 3,488 hectares (34.88 square kilometers) and the river’s average depth is around 10 meters.
The river was once picturesque and even hosted crocodiles in the past. It was also a location for Hindi films. Today, it is highly polluted due to industrial waste, sewage from slums, and stormwater drains. Silt, debris, and plastic have made the channel shallower.
Unplanned urbanisation has narrowed the riverbanks, especially around Leprosy Colony, and construction debris, solid waste, and encroachments from buildings and slums have choked the waterway and increased flood risk. Some visible encroachments include structures along the bridge area between the Western Express Highway and S.V. Road, marble shops near the Highway, and pockets of slums near Daulat Nagar.
The 26 July 2005 floods, with a record 994 mm of rain in 24 hours, caused widespread damage: about 10,000 houses and shops were submerged, water levels reached about 2.5 meters in many places, and thousands of people lost their homes and livelihoods. In some spots, floods rose to around 3 meters during high tides, highlighting the need for tide gates at the mouth.
After 2005, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation began desilting and widening the river to reduce flooding, but pollution, debris dumping, and ongoing encroachment remain problems. By 2016, many residents had moved or sold property as redevelopment plans progressed.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:45 (CET).