Kiran Kulkarni, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Nohkalikai Falls
India’s tallest plunge waterfall drops about 340 metres off the Sohra rim in one unbroken fall, into a pool the colour of nothing else on the plateau.
One drop, 340 metres
Most tall waterfalls are a staircase. Nohkalikai is not: the stream crosses the lip of the plateau and falls the whole way in a single plunge, which is what makes it the tallest plunge waterfall in India rather than merely one of the tallest falls.
Explore Nohkalikai Falls on the map
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What you are looking at
The viewpoint sits on the rim more or less opposite the fall, so you see the whole drop at once — the top, the plunge and the pool — which is unusual and is the reason this is the one waterfall stop nobody skips.
The fall
- The water leaves the lip cleanly and is already breaking into spray well before it lands, so the bottom third is more mist than stream.
- In full flow after the monsoon the sound reaches the viewpoint; in the dry months you may see the drop and hear nothing at all.
The pool
- The plunge pool is an intense green-blue that has nothing to do with the sky — it is the mineral load off the limestone, and it is at its strongest in flat light rather than sun.
The cliff
- The rock face is banded in orange and grey, and those bands are sediment: this plateau was a seabed, which is also why there are fossils in the caves a few kilometres away.
The name
- Nohkalikai means the leap of Ka Likai, and the Khasi story attached to it is a grim one about a widow and her child. Guides tell it; it is genuinely part of the place rather than decoration, and it is not a cheerful story.
Getting there
It is a roadside viewpoint, not a walk, which is why it works for every itinerary regardless of fitness.
From Sohra
- About seven kilometres west of the Sohra bazaar on a signed road, twenty minutes by car. Every driver on the plateau knows it.
At the site
- A short paved descent from the car park to a railed terrace, then steps to a lower terrace. Both look at the same fall; the lower one is worth the extra minute.
From Shillong
- Around two hours each way. Doing Nohkalikai as a day trip from Shillong is normal and works, but it puts you at the viewpoint in the middle of the day, which is the worst light and the busiest hour.
When to go
The water and the visibility peak at different times, and you generally cannot have both.
For water
- September and October, once the monsoon has eased but before the streams drop. The fall is at its heaviest and the cloud is beginning to lift.
For seeing it at all
- November to February. Clear, cool and reliable, with less water but a fall that is actually visible from top to bottom.
- By March and April the flow can be a thread, and in a dry year very little. This is worth knowing before it disappoints you.
Hour of the day
- Early afternoon puts the sun round far enough to light the fall rather than only the cliff opposite. First thing in the morning the whole gorge can be inside cloud.
Worth knowing
A short stop that a few small things make considerably better.
Cloud
- The gorge fills and clears repeatedly. If it is white when you arrive, wait — twenty minutes is usually enough, and people who leave immediately often miss it by five.
The railing
- Stay behind it. The terrace is on the lip of a several-hundred-metre drop and the rock is wet for most of the year.
Photography
- The fall is backlit for much of the morning. A flat overcast day is genuinely better here than a bright one, because the pool colour comes up and the cliff stops blowing out.
Combining it
- It sits naturally with the Sohra rim viewpoints on the same afternoon. Pair it with the caves on a different half day rather than the same one.
Nearby
The rest of the Sohra day.
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