About Nohkalikai Falls
Nohkalikai Falls is India's tallest plunge waterfall at 340 metres — a single, unbroken vertical drop that sends a jet of white water into a vivid green pool surrounded by a horseshoe of ancient khasi limestone cliffs. Located near Cherrapunji, which receives up to 11,000 mm of rain annually, the falls are most powerful from June to September when the monsoon transforms them from a thin ribbon into a roaring torrent of terrifying power and beauty. The turquoise colour of the plunge pool — caused by minerals leached from the limestone — is particularly striking.
The falls take their name from the Khasi legend of Ka Likai — a woman driven to madness and suicide after discovering that her second husband had killed and cooked her daughter. The legend has given the falls a poetic melancholy that resonates with the wild drama of the landscape. The viewpoint above the falls overlooks both the cascade and the valley dropping away toward the plains of Bangladesh, and on clear days the view extends across the Sylhet floodplain of Bangladesh far below, 1500 metres lower.
July–August at peak monsoon; morning for best light into the gorge.
The viewpoint above gives the full 340m in frame — use a vertical format. The green pool below is best captured with a drone or telephoto from the cliff edge.