Nohkalikai Falls

Nohkalikai Falls, sometimes Ka Likai, is the tallest plunge waterfall in India. The 340 metres (1,115 ft) waterfall is located in the Indian state of Meghalaya, near Cherapunji (now known as Sohra), one of the wettest places on Earth. Nohkalikai Falls are fed by the rainwater collected on the summit of a comparatively small plateau and decrease in power during the dry season, from December to February. Below the falls is a plunge pool with water of an unusual shade of green. == Legend of Nohkalikai == According to local legend, in a village called Rangjyrteh, upstream from Nohkalikai Falls, there lived a woman named Likai who found she had no choice but to remarry following the death of her husband. "Ka Likai" ('Ka' is the prefix for the female gender in Khasi) was left with an infant daughter and scant means of earning a living; in order to sustain herself and feed her child, she took on the arduous job of a porter. Her work required her to leave the child unattended for long periods, and what little time she could spend at home was devoted almost entirely to caring for her baby. Realising that raising a child required both parents, Ka Likai married a second time for the sake of her daughter. However, as mother to an infant, she was obliged to give her daughter constant attention, at the expense of giving her wicked second husband the love he thought he deserved. Consumed with jealous rage, he conceived a hatred for his little stepdaughter, finally killing the infant in cold blood and cooking her flesh, after first throwing away her severed head and bones in order to hide – as he thought – all trace of the murder.