BharatSangraha

Bagelkhand · Central Highlands & Forest Belt

Terrain and eco-zones

Dry sub-humid, wetter than Bundelkhand and wetter still moving south towards the Son — roughly 1,000 to 1,300 mm, nearly all of it between mid-June and September. The plateau surface holds heat: 44–46 °C in May on the open tableland, dropping to 6–9 °C on January nights. The forested Son valley is a few degrees cooler in summer and noticeably more humid.

Landforms

Vindhyan sandstone plateau — flat-bedded, near-horizontal strata forming stepped tablelands and vertical cliffsThe Rewa scarp, where the plateau edge drops to the Ganga plain and every north-flowing river leaves it as a waterfallKaimur range along the north-eastern rim, running on into Sonbhadra and RohtasSon trench in the south, a long structural valley carrying Gondwana coal measuresVindhyan limestone belts around Satna, the basis of one of India's largest cement clustersSal, saja, tendu and bamboo forest across Shahdol, Umaria and Sidhi; teak and mixed deciduous on the plateau

Rivers and waters

Tamsa (Tons) — the region's main north-flowing river, rising on the plateau and joining the Ganga near Prayagraj, and the collector for the scarp-edge fallsSon — rises at Amarkantak in the Maikal range to the south and runs east along the trench towards BiharBeehar and Bichhiya — the two rivers that meet at Rewa cityMahana, Odda (Nihai) and Belan — scarp streams that produce the fallsKen and Paisuni (Mandakini) on the western boundary at Chitrakoot

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
WinterNovember–February7–28 °CWheat and gram on the plateau, the safari season at Bandhavgarh and Sanjay-Dubri, and the wedding and fair months. Sal leaves are collected and pressed into plates.
SummerMarch–June25–46 °CMahua flowering from late March, collected off the forest floor at dawn — the single largest cash and calorie event of the year for forest households. The falls dry to a trickle and the plateau streams stop.
MonsoonMid-June–September24–34 °CThe falls run at full volume for eight or ten weeks, rice is transplanted, Karma dancing begins, and the forest roads in Sidhi and Shahdol become unreliable.
Post-monsoonOctober18–32 °CClear and green, the best weeks for the waterfalls with water still in them, and Navratri at Maihar.

Best time to visitOctober to March. Late September and October if the waterfalls are the point — they are spectacular for about ten weeks a year and unremarkable for the other forty. Navratri, twice a year, turns Maihar into one of the largest gatherings in central India.

The climate, landforms, rivers and seasons of Bagelkhand, and the best time of year to visit. (4)