SHILLONG: The road condition in Cherrapunjee is as bad as the Jowai – Silchar highway. In fact it would be unwise to call them roads in the first place.
With no signs of bitumen and crater sized potholes and unscientific cutting of hills causing landslides taking its toll on the roads, this is the sight that welcome tourist to the wettest place on earth called Cherrapunjee. In a recent trip there it was noticed that the state government is least bothered about its maintainance. For instance, the road that leads to Thangkarang Park, few PWD workers were seen doing some pothole filling repairing works few kilometers inside the Halari Restaurant junction, which otherwise demands good quality bitumen topping.
This 10km drive to the park, near the Indo-Bangla border, is the worst of all tourist spots in this place known worldwide for its play of clouds and rainfall. It is indeed an irony of its type that despite Cherrapunjee attracting tourists in large volumes throughout the year, the state government turns a blind eye towards the maintainance of the roads. The valley has been rated as a ‘third class’ tourist destination by a dignitary from Mizoram in the past during his visit there but it was not enough to open the eyes of the state government. A tourist from Kerala, Paipra Radhakrishnan, who was in Shillong recently on an invitation to attend a birth anniversary celebration of a spiritual guru said, “I have travelled 3500km to reach here and nowhere I have come across such bad roads.”
The skeletal appearance with lose stone chips forces vehicles to skid on this road which runs alongside deep gorges.
This road can cause accidents due to bad roads. The tourist observed that Cherrapunjee is known everywhere for its scenic beauty but his impression has taken a dip after he had to tread on rough stony roads. “The roads here is certainly not what is seen in tourist places elsewhere in the country,” he said.
Except clouds and rainfall,Cherrapunjee valley has changed enormously. The barren hills, dried rivers, lakes, ugly sight of hills being cut to extract boulders, stone chips and sands is what defines Sohra, the local name for Cherrapunjee, today.
The beauty of the nestled clouds unmoved in the far end of the green hills that gives a bluish appearance in the afternoon sun besides the intermittent play of the rainfall and moving clouds are pointing to the fact that they too are shortlived.
The rampant devastation of the valley and prevailing road condition might just strip this destination out of the tourist map, some day.
