BharatSangraha

Tulu Nadu · Western Coastal Strip

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical monsoon, and among the wettest coastal stretches in the country outside the northeast — Mangaluru averages close to 3,900 mm, almost all of it between June and September, with the first landfall usually in the first days of June. December to February is dry, warm and windless, and the ritual calendar sits inside that window because a Kola or a Kambala cannot be held in the rain.

Landforms

Laterite plateaus — the padavu — cut flat above the paddy, red, porous and quarried in blocks for buildingTwin-river estuaries closed by long north-running sand bars, which is why the ports sit behind the coastCoastal paddy flats flooded deliberately for Kambala tracks between November and MarchSahyadri scarp rising abruptly to 1,000 m and more at the Charmadi, Shiradi and Sampaje passesColumnar jointed lava at St Mary's Islands off Malpe, a declared National Geological Monument

Rivers and waters

Netravati — the region's main river, rising at Bangrabalige in the Ghats and reaching the sea at MangaluruGurupura (Phalguni) — runs parallel to the coast behind the sand bar before joining the NetravatiSwarna and Sita — the Udupi rivers, joining at KalyanapuraPayaswini (Chandragiri) — the southern limit, reaching the sea below KasaragodKumaradhara, Shambhavi, Nandini and Mogral as the secondary drainage

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
SummerMarch–May24–36 °CHumid and still. The Kambala season closes, and the Siri possession gatherings fall at the end of it.
MonsoonJune–September23–30 °CContinuous rain and rough sea; the fishing fleet is grounded by the annual ban. Aati, the lean month inside it, is treated as inauspicious — no weddings, no housewarmings, and a medicinal bark decoction drunk at dawn on Aati Amavasya.
Post-monsoonOctober–November23–33 °CThe paddy comes in and the ritual year opens. Yakshagana melas take to the road; the first Kambalas are run.
WinterDecember–February20–33 °CDry and clear. Bhuta Kola, Nema, Yakshagana and Kambala all run at once, and Paryaya falls in mid-January.

Best time to visitNovember to February, when the Kola, Kambala and Yakshagana calendars overlap. Paryaya at Udupi falls on 18 January in even-numbered years. Boats to St Mary's Islands do not run through the monsoon, and the ghat roads are the first thing the rain closes.

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