Urban heritage conservation in Mumbai started taking shape in the late 1970s. Mumbai became a pioneer city in India in drafting regulations for urban heritage conservation in 1991 (approved in 1995). It has been 30 years since then, and heritage conservation has been well established in the city, with listing mechanisms, restoration projects and awareness drives. This paper aims to assess the heritage conservation movement in Mumbai by critically analysing the gaps in policy and practice. It reflects on the existing heritage policies and practices, their integration in planning, success stories, and challenges in this process and the role of citizen participation. The inherent dichotomies between nature and culture (Larsen & Wijesuriya, 2017) and tangible and intangible, resulting from adopting certain international heritage practices, are also highlighted. In the coastal city of Mumbai, which suffers from the ill effects of urbanization (Udeaja et al., 2020) and faces threats of destruction due to climate change, the future of heritage needs to be viewed within the larger socio-political and environmental context. This research envisages a broader role for urban heritage conservation, integrating ecological perspectives with cultural preservation, for a sustainable and resilient future. (Nayak et al., 2023).