Every article written about Banswara opens with the same phrase: the city of a hundred islands. Very few of them explain where the islands come from, or mention that for part of the year you cannot see them at all.
Where they come from
The Mahi river is dammed at Mahi Bajaj Sagar, about 16 kilometres from town, creating a large reservoir.
The land under that reservoir is not flat. When the water is at its highest, after the monsoon, most of it is submerged. As the level falls through the dry season, the higher ground emerges — dozens of small islands appearing across the water, some large enough to walk on, most not.
They are not permanent islands. They are the tops of hills in a flooded valley.
Why nobody agrees on the number
Because the number genuinely changes.
How many islands are visible depends entirely on the water level, and the water level depends on that year’s monsoon and how much has been released for irrigation. A dry year exposes more ground and more islands. A heavy monsoon submerges them.
So “a hundred” is not a count. It is a way of saying a great many, and more than you can be bothered to number — which is how most such names work.
When you can actually see them
November to February. By then the monsoon has finished filling the reservoir and the level has dropped enough for the higher ground to stand clear.
July to September is the wrong time. During and just after the monsoon the reservoir is at its fullest, and the islands are underwater. The countryside is green and beautiful and the waterfalls run — but the thing Banswara is named for is not visible. Visitors are regularly disappointed by this, and it is worth knowing in advance.
March to June works, but the heat makes standing in the open unpleasant by mid-morning.
Where to see them from
Not the dam. Mahi Dam is the engineering — the wall, the water, the scale of it.
For the islands, go to Chacha Kota. From the high ground there the backwaters spread out below and the islands read clearly across the water. It is the view that appears in almost every photograph of Banswara.
Go early morning or an hour before sunset. In flat midday light the water and the land merge into one grey surface and the whole effect disappears.
One more thing
There is nothing built at Chacha Kota — no platform, no railing, no shop, no shade. That is much of why it is worth going. It also means proper shoes, water, and care near the edges.
Bring a camera with some reach if you have one. The islands are further away than they look.