BharatSangraha

Utkal · Eastern Coastal Plains

Terrain and eco-zones

Tropical, humid and maritime. Around 1,450 mm falls between June and September, humidity stays high most of the year, and the temperature range is narrow — 15–30 °C in January, 27–40 °C in May. The consequential season is not the monsoon but the cyclone window either side of it, October–November above all, when systems form in the Bay and come ashore on this stretch of coast.

Landforms

The Mahanadi distributary fan, with Cuttack sitting on the tongue of land between the Mahanadi and KathajodiCoastal sand ridges and dunes with planted casuarina behind the beachThe Chilika sand bar and its shifting sea mouthMangrove and creek country at Bhitarkanika where the Brahmani and Baitarani meet the seaLaterite uplands at Khordha and Bhubaneswar, the inland limit of the plainIsolated hill outcrops — Udayagiri, Khandagiri, Dhauli, Kalijai — rising directly out of flat ground

Rivers and waters

Mahanadi — the region's builder, splitting at Cuttack into the Mahanadi and the KathajodiKathajodi, Kuakhai, Daya and Bhargavi — the distributaries that water Bhubaneswar and Puri districtsDevi — the southern mouth, an olive ridley nesting riverBrahmani and Baitarani — joining in the Dhamra estuary at the northern edgePrachi — a small river with an outsized density of early temples along it

Through the year

SeasonMonthsTypicalWhat it is like
WinterNovember–February15–30 °CThe travelling season. Konark and the Bhubaneswar temples are workable all day, Chilika fills with migratory waterfowl, and the pitha calendar runs from Prathamastami through Makar Sankranti.
SummerMarch–May27–40 °CPakhala season, and the temple's own hot-weather calendar — Chandan Jatra on the Narendra tank for forty-two days, then Snana Jatra and the fortnight of anasara.
MonsoonJune–September26–34 °CRatha Jatra falls in Asadha, usually in heavy rain, and the Bada Danda is at its most crowded. Raja Parba opens the season and no ploughing is done for its three days.
Post-monsoonOctober–November22–32 °CCyclone risk peaks. Durga Puja at Cuttack, then Kartik Purnima — Boita Bandana at dawn and Bali Jatra on the Mahanadi bank for a week after it.

Best time to visitNovember to February for everything except the chariots. Ratha Jatra in June or July is the reason many people come and is also the hardest week of the year to move in Puri; the Konark festival falls in early December.

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