BharatSangraha

Tripura Hills & Plains · Northeast Hill Massif

Terrain and eco-zones

Humid subtropical with a long monsoon. Rainfall has averaged between about 1,980 mm and 2,746 mm a year in recorded decades, most of it between May and September, and the humidity is high enough year-round that food preservation here had to be fermentation and smoke rather than sun-drying alone. Winters are mild on the plain and genuinely cold on the Jampui crest, which is why the oranges grow there and nowhere else in the region.

Landforms

Five parallel north–south ranges — Jampui, Sakhan, Longtharai, Atharamura and Baramura (Hathai Kotor) — low, forested and separated by flat valley troughsBetlingchhip on the Jampui ridge, 939 m, the highest pointTilla-lunga country — low hillocks and intervening hollows, the characteristic central landformWestern alluvial plain continuous with the Meghna floodplain, dense with homestead ponds and tank fisheriesForest over more than half the territory, with bamboo and cane as the dominant economic speciesThe Gomati gorge at Chabimura, where the river cuts through the Devtamura ridge

Rivers and waters

Gomati (Gumti) — the largest river of the region, dammed at Dumboor to form a lake of many islandsKhowai, Dhalai and Manu — northward and westward flowing, into the Surma–Meghna systemHaora (Saidra) — the Agartala river, and the one the fourteen gods are carried to at KharchiMuhuri, Feni, Juri and Longai on the outer marginsRudrasagar and Kalyan Sagar — the built lakes, one holding a palace and one a temple tank

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
WinterNovember–February10–28 °CDry and clear. The Jampui oranges come in through November, the plains cut their aman rice, and the wedding and mela season runs through it.
SpringMarch–April20–34 °CThe jhum clearing season on the slopes and the festival cluster at the turn of the year — Garia, Buisu, Bizu and Sangrai fall within a fortnight of one another in mid-April.
MonsoonMay–September24–33 °CHeavy, continuous rain. Bamboo shoots come up and are cut, fermented and bottled; Kharchi and Ker puja fall in July and August, in the hardest part of the agricultural year.
Post-monsoonOctober22–32 °CDurga puja on the plain and Hojagiri on the ridges within the same fortnight, which is the clearest single view of the region's two calendars running side by side.

Best time to visitOctober to March. November for the Jampui orange harvest and the ridge weather; mid-April if the point is the Garia–Buisu–Bizu–Sangrai cluster; Diwali for the Matabari mela at Udaipur, which is the largest single gathering in the region's year.

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