A video circulating on X has sparked widespread outrage as it shows a man casually dumping trash into the Arabian Sea near Mumbai’s iconic Gateway of India.

A tourist tries to confront him but the man walks away smiling shamlessly.

The video has faced a major backlash online with netizens calling him out for this careless act.

An X user wrote: “Parents are supposed to set an example of good citizenship for their kids. That’s the bare minimum of parenting, but then…”

Another user critiqued his civic sense, saying, “The biggest lesson we can teach our children is not through lectures but through our actions. Education doesn’t ensure civic sense. Some strict rules need to be imposed to avoid water pollution.”

With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections under way on Thursday, the video has added an edge to the conversation. It underlines how everyday acts, often brushed aside as trivial, quietly define the civic character of a city.

For a metropolis as symbolic and influential as Mumbai, these small moments become reflections of a much larger question: what kind of city are we choosing to become?