Sunday, August 31, 2014

Living bridges of Cherrapunji

I was so amazed to hear about these self growing, self supporting bridges about Cherrapunji. My knowledge about Cherrapunji was that it was the wettest place on earth, which I learnt in school as part of "general knowledge" about things. I did not know a thing about how people manage their lives in the "wettest place" on earth.

One had never wondered about how the local people navigate their way around rivers, and hillsides. Well, they apparently use natural rubber trees along river banks in an ingenuous way, to make "living bridges"!





The local rubber trees give out lateral roots, which are made to grow in the direction you want, say across a river. How are they guided along? Well, one way is to use old betel nut tree trunks, hollowed out, and sliced in the middle, to act as guides, around which the rubber tree roots entwine themselves, and grow. Bridges have been grown like this by the local people, which are more than a hundred feet long, and can hold more than fifty people at a time. When the roots reach where they are supposed to, like say the other side of the river, they are allowed to take root.


 The root-bridges keep growing and nurturing and maintaining themselves. Some of the bridges made this way, and in use even today are more than 500 years old.

Bamboo sticks may also be used to provide the initial framework. Though the bamboo sticks rot over time, the rubber tendrils harden before that, and take over.

What happens when a bridge is wearing out?
You have to start building another one, using new roots, and other trees. It takes 12-15 years for the tendrils to harden, and for the tree roots of a new bridge to become strong and hard enough to start bearing weight.

Villagers knot up some of the thin, aerial roots to form steps and ladders and make it easier to use the bridge. Another ingenuous step! Such ladders are also made along steep hillsides and forests, to be able to navigate along the land better.

Hope this knowledge and practice of Cherrapunji gets appreciated and protected.

Maybe such rubber trees and bridges can even be grown in other rain soaked places, adding a touch of mystery and magic to those places.

http://inhabitat.com/extraordinary-living-bridges-are-made-of-growing-roots-and-vines/

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/08/meghalaya-the-wettest-place-on-earth/100797/