UNESCO in touch with government to identify sites
SHILLONG: Sohra, a major tourist destination with several records for receiving heavy rainfall, will get a facelift as the State government is taking initiatives to declare it as a world heritage site, set up a geo park and a rain museum.
The UNESCO is in touch with the State government to identity natural heritage sites in the entire stretch of Sohra and beyond before officially declaring them heritage sites.
The Executive Director of the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, BDR Tiwari, said the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, was entrusted the task of identifying heritage sites in Sohra and surrounding areas as the State alone cannot certify the important areas.
The landscape, waterfalls, tourism sites and heritage buildings will be examined by Wildlife Institute of India.
The folk stories behind the waterfalls, including the famed Nohkalikai falls, in Sohra will also be researched.
Another plan is to set up a geo park from Sohra to Dawki and other connected sites on the lines of the Western Ghats (from Goa to Maharashtra), Tiwari said and added that several places in the Western Ghats were declared as geo parks.
It may be mentioned that the UNESCO had declared the Western Ghats as world heritage site.
As far as the rain museum is concerned, the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority has taken up the initiative to collect rain data of several years.
While 50 acres of land has been identified for the rain museum at Kut Madan area in Sohra, the cost for the rain museum, which will include weather research centre, amusement park and audio-visual facilities, is Rs 50 crore. There is also a plan to link the rain museum with Mawsynram.
The concept of rain museum is being developed and designed by Creative Museum Designers, a part of the National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata, under the Ministry of Culture.
The Detailed Project Report is being prepared by Creative Museum Designers.
As per the concept note, the uniqueness of Cherrapunjee-Mawsynram area of Meghalaya is that the area is located well inland and experiences very heavy rainfall even in the absence of cyclonic disturbances unlike Hawaii islands in the Pacific Ocean and La-Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Both these places are islands amidst vast oceans where cyclonic disturbances cause heavy rainfall.
In fact, all events of record heavy rainfall at La Reunion have been associated with cyclonic storms. But there is a different pattern in Cherrapunjee-Mawsynram area.
The rain museum will provide a unique setting to understand the mechanism of very heavy rainfall processes in the absence of cyclonic disturbances. Hence this initiative will provide facilities to national and international research community to carry out research in the areas related to very heavy rainfall.
There is also a plan to establish a state-of-the-art Met Instrumentation Laboratory, and this will add value to the museum by attracting national and international scientists and students to observe and analyse the special nature of rainfall in Cherrapunjee-Mawsynram.