BharatSangraha

Koraput–Kalahandi Uplands · Central Highlands & Forest Belt

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical monsoon modified by altitude. The plateau takes 1,400–1,600 mm from the south-west monsoon between mid-June and September and is genuinely cold in December and January — 4–8 °C at night around Semiliguda and Pottangi, with ground frost in hollows — while the Bolangir lowland below the ghat regularly touches 45 °C in May. The altitude difference of about a kilometre inside a single region is the reason its two halves eat different grains.

Landforms

Deomali, 1,672 m, the highest point of the Eastern Ghats in this stretch, on the Chandragiri–Pottangi ridgeThe Niyamgiri range — a long flat-topped ridge holding perennial springs well into the dry seasonBonda hills above the Balimela reservoir, a steep isolated massif reached on foot from MudulipadaKarlapat and Ampani hills in the Kalahandi highlandThe Sunabeda plateau, a high grassland-and-sal tableland at the western edgeLaterite and khondalite scarps where the plateau drops to the Tel and Ang lowland

Rivers and waters

Machkund — falls 175 m at Duduma and is dammed at Jalaput and Balimela, its water shared by two administrationsKolab — dammed above Koraput, becomes the Sabari and joins the GodavariIndravati — rises at Thuamul Rampur and flows west into Bastar, the only major river here running away from the seaNagavali and Vamsadhara — rise on the eastern slope and cut down the scarp to the coastTel — the Kalahandi and Bolangir lowland river, and the Mahanadi's largest tributaryJonk and Sunder in the western lowland

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
WinterNovember–February4–28 °CHarvest, marriage and mela season. Frost settles in the Semiliguda hollows, the haats are at their fullest, and mahua trees are bare before flowering.
SummerMarch–May20–45 °CMahua flowers drop in the pre-dawn hours through late March and April and are collected before the deer get them. Chaita Parab falls here, red ants are at their most numerous, and the whole region moves onto pakhala.
MonsoonJune–September20–32 °CSowing on the slopes, and the wild mushroom season — the first flush comes days after the first heavy rain and is the one forest food that reliably earns cash.
Post-monsoonOctober18–30 °CThe millet harvest, Dussehra at Jeypore, and the clearest month for the plateau's long views.

Best time to visitOctober to February. Time a visit around a market day rather than a monument — the weekly haat is where this region is most itself. March and April are hot but are the mahua and Chaita Parab months.

The climate, landforms, rivers and seasons of Koraput–Kalahandi Uplands, and the best time of year to visit. (4)