BharatSangraha

South Gujarat Littoral · Western Coastal Strip

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical monsoon, and the wettest part of Gujarat by a wide margin. The Dangs and the Valsad hills take 2,000–2,500 mm a year, Surat around 1,200 mm, almost all of it between mid-June and late September, when the coast is the first land the south-west monsoon reaches after crossing the Arabian Sea. Humidity stays high year-round on the estuary; the temperature range is narrow — rarely below 14 °C, rarely above 38 °C — which is why the region grows perennial fruit that the drier parts of the state cannot.

Landforms

Tidal estuaries and creeks, with the Tapi navigable by small craft well inlandAlluvial coastal plain, deep and heavily cropped with cane, banana, mango and chikooThe Sahyadri western scarp, rising to about 1,000 m at SaputaraMoist deciduous teak and bamboo forest on the Dangs plateau — the densest forest cover in the stateBlack sand at Dumas and mudflats along the Suvali and Umbergaon shoreSalt pans and mangrove in the Kim and Mindhola creeks

Rivers and waters

Tapi — rises far inland in the Satpuras, reaches the sea at Surat, and gives the region its only large estuaryPurna — the Dangs river, cutting the Vansda and Purna forests before reaching NavsariAmbika and Auranga — short Sahyadri rivers reaching the sea at Bilimora and ValsadPar, Kolak and Damanganga — the southern rivers, the last of them dividing Daman in twoKim and Mindhola — the creeks north and south of the Tapi mouth

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
MonsoonMid June–September24–32 °CThe defining season. Waterfalls run at Gira, Girmal and Shivghat, Saputara fills with visitors, and rice and nagli go in on the slope. Rivers rise fast and fall fast because their catchments are short.
Post-monsoonOctober–November22–34 °CSugarcane crushing begins, and Chandani Padvo falls in this window — the one night Surat eats ghari on a city-wide scale.
WinterDecember–February14–32 °CPonk season. Tender jowar is harvested green and roasted, and it is available for roughly ten weeks and then not at all. Undhiyu is made through the same window.
SummerMarch–May24–38 °CAlphonso and Kesar mango from the Valsad and Navsari orchards, chikoo through the belt, and toddy tapped from palms along the coast. Humid rather than scorching.

Best time to visitNovember to February for the estuary, the Parsi coast and ponk together. July to September if the point is the Dangs — the falls only run in the monsoon, and Saputara is unrecognisable outside it. Holi in March is the one time to be in the Dangs for the calendar rather than the landscape.

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