Meghalaya

Mawsynram village receives 11,871 millimeters of rain annually, making it the wettest inhabited place on Earth. Nearby Cherrapunji once held that title. In this Abode of Clouds, the Khasi and Jaintia peoples learned to build with living things rather than against the monsoon.

The living root bridges of Meghalaya are not relics but ongoing engineering. For centuries, villagers have trained the aerial roots of rubber fig trees across rivers, creating bridges that strengthen with age. The longest spans 50 meters. UNESCO has placed them on its tentative World Heritage list. In July 2025, India's Finance Minister visited one, a sign of shifting national attention.

But Meghalaya's distinction extends beyond architecture to social structure. The Khasi operate one of the world's largest surviving matrilineal societies. Children take their mother's surname. The youngest daughter inherits ancestral property. Husbands move into their wives' homes. Yet matrilineal does not mean matriarchal. Women remain nearly absent from the Legislative Assembly and village councils, prompting some Khasi men to form movements demanding inheritance reform.

Beneath this unique society lies coal. Meghalaya's seams attracted miners who dug rat-holes, narrow pits where workers descended without safety equipment into deposits barely 1.5 meters thick. The National Green Tribunal banned the practice in 2014. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2019. By late 2024, nearly 24,000 illegal rat-hole mines still operated. Rivers turned acidic. The Kopili, Myntdu, and Lukha no longer sustain aquatic life. In March 2025, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma inaugurated Meghalaya's first scientific coal mine, attempting to formalize what could not be stopped. Environmental activists argue that scientific mining simply legitimizes destruction.

As 2026 approaches, Meghalaya confronts its contradictions. The roots that bridge rivers represent patience and partnership with nature. The holes that bleed coal represent extraction without consequence. Both define the state. The clouds still anchor on these Khasi Hills, but what they will find beneath them grows less certain with each passing monsoon.