BharatSangraha

North Konkan · Western Coastal Strip

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical monsoon, and unusually wet for how flat it is — 2,000 to 2,900 mm, almost all of it between the second week of June and the end of September, because the Sahyadri wall forces the incoming south-west monsoon to rise and dump. The temperature range is narrow, 16–35 °C across the year, and the sea keeps nights mild; humidity, not heat, is what visitors underestimate. October is the hottest-feeling month.

Landforms

Drowned river mouths and tidal creeks — Vasai, Thane, Panvel, Dharamtar, RajapuriMangrove and tidal mudflat, mostly Avicennia, along every creekKhar lands — saline flats embanked and desalinated for paddySalt pans at Bhayandar, Vasai, Thane creek, Bhandup and WadalaDeccan trap basalt hills and mesas — Matheran, Karnala, Prabalgad, Kanheri's ridgeOffshore rock islands — Gharapuri (Elephanta), Khanderi and Underi, Janjira's reef

Rivers and waters

Ulhas — rises at Rajmachi, drains the Kalyan basin and forms Vasai creekVaitarna — dammed for Mumbai's water and still the Palghar plain's main drainageSurya, Tansa and Bhatsa — the reservoir rivers of the city's supply systemAmba, Patalganga and Kundalika — the Raigad creek rivers, tidal far upstreamSavitri — the southern boundary, meeting the sea at BankotMithi — eleven creek-fed kilometres through the city, and its flood risk

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
MonsoonJune–September24–31 °CThe defining season. Fishing stops under a state-wide ban through the breeding period, the ghats waterfall, and Mumbai floods when a high tide coincides with a cloudburst — the creeks cannot drain uphill.
Post-monsoonOctober–November24–36 °CHumid and still, locally called the October heat. Boats are repaired and repainted, and Narali Purnima has already released the fleet.
WinterDecember–February16–32 °CThe working season for everything — salt pans start their evaporation cycle, fish landings peak, and every jatra, feast and fair falls in this window.
SummerMarch–May22–36 °CSalt harvest, bottle-masala pounding, mango and jackfruit, and the heavy drying of bombil and shrimp before the rains shut the racks down.

Best time to visitNovember to February for the coast, the forts and the city. June to September if the point is the ghat spurs and the waterfalls, with the understanding that boat services to Elephanta and the sea forts stop.

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