Meghalaya's remarkable living root bridges attract tourists across the globe

In the East khasi hills district the village Mawlynnlong has something unique which is a beautiful example of the bonding shared by humans and nature and that is Living Root bridges.

There are many such bridges in the west Jaintia and East Khali hills district of Meghalaya which has been made by the Khasi and Jaintia community members.The living root bridge is the best example of organic engineering.

During monsoon it rains heavily in this village,hence many years ago the people residing here planted banyan trees along the banks of rivers and when these trees grow they start developing aerial roots with the help of which root bridges are constructed.
The natural elasticity of banyan trees keep these bridges intact.These roots are covered by the shell of bamboos or betel but to give shape to these bridges.Thereon stones and mud are used to make the walking Pata over the bridge.

This process of making a living root bridge takes 10 to 15 years and on completion these bridges can survive for upto 500 years. There is no maintenance cost evolved to make these natural bridges and these living root bridges are a fine example of humans dependence on nature and vice versa.

The length of these more than 100 years old bridges is almost 65 feet and is 6 to 8 feet wide and it's so strong that about 500 people can cross it at once.

Being one of the heavy rain areas this region of Meghalaya which is devoid of any properly engineered or government constructed bridges,people has a unique importance of such root bridges.The villagers living down use them in their day to day life and it's a boon for them as they are being helped by mother nature itself.

Steel bridges begin rusting and get weaker when it rains whereas living root bridges turn stronger in such cases.For it's natural uniqueness these bridges are a major tourist attraction who visit Cherrapunjee locally known as Sohra.

Tourists from Mumbai, kolkata, Delhi and many other states including foreign tourists visit in huge numbers to see this natural wonder bridges made up by roots of trees.Despite the heavy trekking down 3500 steps and climbing up many tourists say that it's worth to see these bridges.

Tourists who have few health complications also trek down slowly and comes getting exhausted and many youngsters also get tired heavily witnessing this steep down trekking down to see living root bridge of Cherrapunjee locally known as Sohra.