<p>The Western Ghats (WG), India, experience heavy rainfall during the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) from June to September, leading to frequent flash floods, landslides, and debris flows. In July 2021, the Mahabaleshwar area of WG witnessed an unprecedented number of debris flows, primarily triggered by intense rainfall. To understand the hydrological controls and mechanisms causing debris flows, we examined these events in the Satara district, Maharashtra, India. Using satellite imagery, we built a debris flow inventory and analyzed satellite derived hourly precipitation and satellite-based soil moisture data to investigate the relationship between rainfall, soil moisture, and debris flows in the study area. Debris flow volumes were estimated using empirical methods and further evaluated using a two-dimensional numerical model to assess the impact of antecedent rainfall and soil moisture. Hourly rainfall data was used as the input boundary condition in the debris flow model, which incorporated factors like volumetric water content, moisture-dependent hydraulic conductivity, and seepage dynamics. The model was calibrated for the 2021 extreme rainfall, and parametric simulations were run for varying degrees of saturation, ranging from 0.1 (dry) to 1.0 (complete saturation). The debris volume obtained through numerical simulation is 526178 m³ and ~ 540000 m³ at 0.95 and 1 value of degree of saturations respectively and this closely approximates the empirically estimated volume. Our findings suggest that, in addition to primary triggering factors, the saturation of the hillslopes due to antecedent rainfall significantly contributed to the triggering and runout of debris flows in the Western Ghats during the 2021 extreme rainfall.</p>