BharatSangraha

Mahakoshal & Gondwana · Central Highlands & Forest Belt

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical wet-and-dry, with a monsoon that arrives in the third week of June and drops 1,200–1,600 mm on the Maikal crest against 1,000–1,200 mm in the Narmada trough. The range is severe for a forested upland: 44–46 °C at Jabalpur in May, 4–7 °C on a December night at Amarkantak and Pachmarhi. Altitude does the work that latitude does elsewhere — the plateau is habitable in summer, the trough is not.

Landforms

The Narmada rift — a fault-bounded trough between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges, which is why the river runs west while everything around it runs eastSatpura range — Deccan trap basalt in the west, Gondwana sandstone and coal measures in the eastMaikal range, the Satpura's north-eastward arm, curving up to the Amarkantak plateau at about 1,050 mThe Bhedaghat gorge — hundred-foot cliffs of dolomitic limestone, locally called marble, cut by the NarmadaLameta beds — Cretaceous sediments around Jabalpur, the type locality of Indian dinosaur palaeontologyPatalkot — a horseshoe collapse valley in Chhindwara, some 1,200 to 1,700 feet below its own rimSal in the east and on the Maikal, teak in the west, and India's largest contiguous bamboo forests

Rivers and waters

Narmada — rises at Amarkantak and runs west down the rift; the region holds its source and its gorgeSon — rises within a few kilometres of the Narmada at Amarkantak and runs the opposite way, eastJohila — the third Amarkantak stream, feeding the SonWainganga — rises near Mundara in Seoni and runs south to the Godavari systemPench, Kanhan and Bawanthadi — the Satpura's southward drainageBanjar and Halon — the two Kanha valleys, feeding the NarmadaTawa and Denwa — the Pachmarhi drainage

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
WinterNovember–February5–27 °CPark season, madai fair season and the marriage months. Mahua trees drop their leaves and begin to bud in late February, which is what the whole household calendar is waiting for.
Mahua and tendu summerMarch–June25–46 °CMahua corollas fall at night through March and April and are swept up before sunrise; tendu leaf is plucked through May. These are the two weeks of the year that carry a forest household's cash and its stored sugar.
MonsoonLate June–September22–33 °CKodo and kutki go in, Karma is danced, and rugda and boda mushrooms come up under the sal within days of the first heavy rain. Kanha and Pench close their core zones from 1 July to 15 October.
Post-monsoonOctober18–31 °CDashera, the start of the madai circuit, and the clearest air of the year on the Maikal.

Best time to visitNovember to March for the forests, the gorge and the fort sites. Late February to early April if the point is to see the mahua economy working. Amarkantak is best in October and November, when the plateau is green and the source pools are full.

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