CHERRAPUNJEE

The original name for this town was Sohra, pronounced as "Churra" by the British before morphing into the present one. Ironically, despite perennial rain, Cherrapunji faces acute water shortage and the inhabitants often have to trek for miles to obtain potable water.^[1] Irrigation is also hampered due to excessive rain washing away the top soil as a result of human encroachment in the forests. Now the Meghalaya State government has decided to rename Cherrapunjee to its local name "Sohra". Cherrapunji sits on the southern tip of a plateau that looms over Bangladesh. The cliffs of Cherrapunji are the first place hit by moisture that forms over the Bay of Bengal. All the rain lands on arid, deforested, ground. As there is no reservoir to store the rain water, it rapidly runs down the hill towards the plains of Bangladesh. Cherrapunji's yearly rainfall average stands at 11,430 mm (450 in). This figure places it behind only nearby Mawsynram, Meghalaya, whose average is 11,873 mm (467 in) and Mount Waialeale (USA) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, whose average is 11,684 mm (460 in).^[2]

Cherrapunji receives both the Southwest and Northeast monsoon showers which give it a single monsoon season. Cherrapunji lies at an elevation of 1,370 m (4,500 feet) in the Khasi Hills. It lies in the windward side of these hills to the Bay of Bengal branch of the SW monsoons which enters India through the Ganga delta. Due to orographic rainfall, the rain-bearing clouds are forced to deposit much of their moisture and rain on these hills from June to September.

In the winter months it receives the northeast monsoon showers which travel down the Brahmaputra valley.

It holds two Guinness world records: