Cherrapunji

Cherrapunji, on the southern edge of the Shillong Plateau where the land drops steeply toward the Bangladesh plains, receives more rainfall than almost anywhere else on earth — an average of 11,430 millimetres per year, concentrated almost entirely in the June-to-September monsoon.

The rainfall is the consequence of geography: warm, moisture-laden air from the Bay of Bengal hits the wall of the Shillong Plateau and rises rapidly, cooling and releasing its moisture in vertical quantities that have made Cherrapunji's weather data the standard reference for extreme precipitation in meteorological literature. The waterfalls that result — Nohkalikai, at 340 metres the fourth-highest in the world — are the landscape product of this precipitation.

The living root bridges in the gorges below the plateau are what makes Cherrapunji singular in the world rather than merely the wettest. The walk to Nongriat — two hours each way through a subtropical gorge of extraordinary botanical richness — passes through a landscape that the rainfall has made so productive that the vegetation grows at speeds visible between visits.

Places to Visit in Cherrapunji

• Double Decker Root Bridge
• Nohkalikai Falls
• Mawsmai Cave

Things to Do in Cherrapunji

• Living root bridge trek
• Waterfall and cave exploration
• Khasi village visits