The Living Bridge of Meghalaya

Meghalaya is a remote area in India. It has a high elevation, with many mountains and valleys. It is also one of the wettest places on Earth. During the summer months, monsoons, or strong storms, dump rain into the area. One year, the area was hit with 25 meters of rain. This huge amount of water comes flooding through the valleys at a very fast rate. This makes it very difficult to travel through the valleys. The people who live in this beautiful yet untamed land have devised a very interesting way of dealing with this problem.

               Harley is a villager who is working on solving this problem with his niece, Juliana. They are sitting by the side of a stream where a strangler fig is growing. Harley is teaching Juliana her how to coax its roots to grow across the stream. Once the roots reach the other side of the steam, they will take hold and dig into the soil. It will take the tree many years to grow across the stream—more years, in fact, than the man could hope to live. That is why he is teaching this skill to his niece—so that she will be able to complete his work. When the roots have finally grown all the way across the stream, the tree will form a bridge. It will be a bridge so strong that none of the summer monsoon’s raging waters could ever destroy it. Harley  tells Juliana that the bridge will last for over 500 years. Her children and her children’s children will use the bridge.

               Dozens of these living bridges span the network of valleys in the Meghalaya region. They have existed for countless generations and help to link the communities of the area together. They are a sustainable, living part of the environment—a living example of how nature and humans can coexist in harmony.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is a major problem for people who live in the Meghalaya region?
2. How do they solve this problem?
3. Can you think of other examples of how people use nature to solve a problem?

Watch the video to learn more: