BharatSangraha

Khasi & Jaintia Hills · Northeast Hill Massif

Terrain and eco-zones

Subtropical highland on the plateau and wet tropical below the rim, with the sharpest rainfall gradient in India. Mawsynram averages about 11,873 mm a year and Sohra about 11,777 mm, while Shillong, roughly fifty kilometres inland and only a few hundred metres higher, gets around a fifth of that. Sohra holds the standing twelve-month world record of 26,461 mm, measured between 1 August 1860 and 31 July 1861, and 9,300 mm of it fell in July 1861 alone. Almost all of that water runs off south within hours, which is why the wettest place on earth has a genuine dry-season water problem.

Landforms

Shillong plateau — a faulted block of gneiss and sandstone, highest at Shillong Peak (1,965 m)The southern escarpment — a near-vertical drop of 1,000–1,400 m from the plateau rim to the Sylhet plainSohra sandstone tableland, deforested and lateritic, with waterfalls dropping straight off its edgeJaintia limestone belt — the Shnongrim and Lakadong ridges, honeycombed with cave systemsBhoi lowland in the north, dropping to under 200 m towards the Brahmaputra floodplainDeep gorges cut by south-flowing rivers, most of them unbridged and crossed on foot

Rivers and waters

Umngot — the clear-water river at Dawki, and the reason boats there appear to float on air in the dry monthsMyntdu — the Jowai river, and the ritual focus of BehdienkhlamKynshi and Rilang — the western drainage, cutting the deepest gorges on the plateauUmiam — dammed in 1965 to make Barapani, the reservoir north of ShillongLukha and Myntang — Jaintia limestone rivers, seasonally discoloured by mine drainageAlmost every river here runs south into the Surma–Meghna system, not north to the Brahmaputra

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
WinterNovember–February4–20 °CDry, clear and cold on the plateau, with frost on the Shillong grasslands. The Nongkrem dance falls in November, oranges come in from the War slope, and the escarpment views open up for the only time in the year.
SpringMarch–April10–24 °CPre-monsoon thunderstorms and the first heavy showers. Shad Suk Mynsiem is danced in April, and jhum plots on the lower slopes are fired and sown.
MonsoonMay–September15–24 °CContinuous rather than intermittent rain, for weeks at a time. Landslips close roads on the War slope, streams that are ankle-deep in March become impassable, and this is precisely the season the living root bridges exist for. Behdienkhlam is observed in July.
Post-monsoonOctober12–23 °CThe rain breaks, the plateau is at its greenest, and the harvest and festival calendar starts.

Best time to visitOctober to April for walking, waterfalls with the cloud lifted, and the festival calendar. Anyone who wants to understand why the place is built the way it is should come in July instead, accept that they will see nothing, and watch the water move.

The climate, landforms, rivers and seasons of Khasi & Jaintia Hills, and the best time of year to visit. (4)