Rainfall in Cherapunji

Bishnu Mandal (Meteorologist, Cherapunjee): There are parts of the world that
receive no water at all and there are parts that receive a lot of water but
strange enough, even these places can be plagued by drought.

Cherapunjee, North-East India

A country like Holland receives, on average, 75 cm of rainfall in a year the
people of over there think they live in a very wet country but it’s nothing
compared to the rainfall that falls down on Cherapunjee in the wet season.

The monsoon cloud comes through the Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh but
there is no hill or mountain in Bangladesh and that’s why rain mainly
comes to Cherapunjee due to mountain or hill.

In 1974 total rainfall of the year 24.55 meters then it is extremely in
monsoon season. In July in the month of July it is 8.204 meters. June also
3.055 meters in August 3.597 meters one day’s rainfall -1.563 mm that
means 1.56 m in one day, or 24 hours.

Male: That is in one day 2 times as much as the whole year, the whole and then
comes here some time 2 or 2-1/2 month continue. You cannot see the
sunshine within 20 or 25 days.

Correspondent: Cherapunjee a former British settlement in the northeast of India
can be found in every atlas not because it’s a big place only a few
thousand people live there but since time and memorial it has been
celebrated as the greatest place on earth. It’s annual rainfall is 11-1/2
meters. 15 times out of western world.

Cherapunjee special status was discovered by the British who settled there
in 1820. They recognized in this wet green and hilly region their homeland
and called it the Scotland of the east but even for the British 2 months of
nonstop rain was too much of a good thing. In 1850 only 30 years later
they left Cherapunjee.

The present inhabitants of Cherapunjee, the –tribe have become used to all
that rain. If everything is under cover life can go on as usual. As long as
your armed with an umbrella and don’t get in the way it’s no trouble at all.
11-1/2 meters of rain however is bound to have consequences at the height
of the rainy season life grinds to a halt.

Local: If it rains very hard it’s impossible to plant anything in the soil. It gets
washed away immediately. It’s even difficulty to go outside to fetch
anything. During the rainy season my husband can’t find any work.

Correspondent: So you don’t grow anything?

Local: No. It would just go to rot or be washed away.

Correspondent: And afterwards where do you get new soil.

Local: We find some again. We use manure or food leftovers. We mix it together
and we plant things in it we manage. He’s asleep.





When

In 1