Cherrapunji- The wettest place on Earth

Dr.B.P.R Perera

Earth is a planet where life can be found in every inch of its surface where the texture and
environmental conditions vary from optimum to extremes. At the time one patch of land
burns with sunlight and dries up another patch may receive abundant water leading to floods.
Cherrapunji, in India, arguably the wettest piece of land on earth receives maximum rainfall
in the world. Once it rained continuously every single day for 2 years, making a world record
of 1041 inches of rain in 1861.
Cherrapunji, now officially known as Sohra, is situated in North East India in the Meghalaya
state which is the home of clouds in the Khasi Hills. The area on average receives 366 inches
of rain every year. The reason for this typical rainfall is the monsoons, winds blown in a
particular direction for 6 months. Mawsynram, a town 16km away from Cherrapunji also
receives lot of rainfall making it a competition between the two places.
During monsoons, water evaporated from oceans, rivers and lakes remain in the atmosphere
and condense into clouds which form raindrops when air is cold. In the north Indian part, the
air is rich in moisture and in Cherrapunji, during moist season the air abundant in moisture is
cooled as it blows over high lands of Khasi Hills causing heavy rainfall on windward
directions.
Elevation is another factor that causes continuous rainfall in the area. Charraounji being
situated 1290m above the sea level naturally facilitates the water vapour condensation.
Upward thrusted rain clouds, rapidly cool as they reach higher altitudes causing the
condensation and consequent downpour. This process of cooling is assisted by the flow of air
from north and north-east to the south in the upper atmosphere from Himalayan ranges. This
process of air being lifted as a large body of water vapour is largely responsible for rainfall in
Cherrapunji. The cooling mostly takes place at night around 10 pm or later and again in the
early mornings when sunrays warm the air and lightens the air attracting clouds hanging
lower over the Sylhet plains and urging them to move up. Therefore, it rains mostly at nights,
creating no disturbance to the daily lives.
The moist season in Cherrapunji lasts for 8 months from March to October, the season the
area receives abundant rainfall. But during the winter that lasts from November to February
Chrrapunji gets nominal or no rain at all. The little rainfall that it gets is mostly due to the
cyclonic depressions in the Bay of Bengal. During this season, two months after the
monsoon, water becomes scarce, compelling the inhabitants of Cherrapunji to walk for miles
searching for water to drink and to bathe. Robin Clarke, in his book Water: The international
crisis describes the irony as the wettest desert on earth.
Cherrapunjii is a place where man and nature lives in perfect harmony. Despite being a humid
and wet environment which constantly receives rain people rarely get rain related maladies.

Moreover, the nature it self provide the inhabitants of Cherrapunji with bridges to cross over
the rivers, hence the saying bridges in Chrrapunjii are not built, they are grown. Living
bridges are a common site in Cherrapunjii which aid people to go across rivers with gushing
water. These are root bridges which are alive and are grown naturally and are not built.
In the area of Chrrapunjii grows a type of rubber tree called Ficus elastic m which grows
secondary roots from the trunk. The people guide these roots with the help of betel nut trunks
to form a bridge where they want it. It takes about six or seven years for a bridge to be able to
be used. These bridges, since they are alive continue to grow stronger and certainly stand the
test of time.
The orange grooves in the area attract bees which produce orange flavoured honey. It is said
that when Chrrapunjiis tribal chieftains royal ancestors died, their corpses were embalmed
in this orange flavoured honey often for months until the environment dries up sufficiently
for the cremation to be performed.
Moreover, Cherrapunji is a monolithic centre of Khasi hill with unique lime stone caves with
numerous stalagmites. Similar caves and stalagmite structures can be found in Mawsynram as
well.
The population growth and the inevitable environmental changes that come with it have
affected the natural balance in Cherrapunji adversely. Over the past 30 years, the village of
5000 has grown to a 69,494 people. With human inhabitation comes deforestation. Water is
already a scarce resource in Cherrapunji during dry season and with destruction of coniferous
forests, the water holding capacity of the land has gone down leading to washing down of all
the rainwater to lower lands.
More over mining for coal and lime stone and growing of crops causes the topsoil to wash
off. This further reduces the absorption capacity of the ground. The rainwater in Chrrapunji
rushes away almost quickly as it comes from the sky and floods Bhangladesh leaving
Cherrapunji a dry land. Tony Juniper once said that we have lost sight of the dependence we
have on nature in economics and Cherrapunji is a classic example for that.
Cherapunji in Meghalaya, the land of clouds, is certainly worth a visit if anyone wishes to see
what it is like in a place where rain and clouds rule. He will be surprised to be enjoying the
rain instead of missing sunshine.
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is
really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
~John Ruskin