The Nongriat Double Decker Root Bridge in Meghalaya, Grown by Khasi Villagers Over an Estimated 200 Years, Is Reached on a 3 km Trail of About 3,500 Stone Steps From Tyrna

The Umshiang Double Decker Root Bridge at Nongriat, in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills, is reached on foot from the village of Tyrna. Meghalaya Tourism describes the route as a 3 km walk down a series of about 3,500 stone steps, with the nearest town, Cherrapunji (Sohra), roughly 15 km away. Every distance, season and contact detail below comes from the state tourism board’s pages as read on 5 November 2026.

What you are walking to

The bridge is made of the aerial roots of Ficus elastica, the Indian rubber fig, guided across a stream by Khasi villagers until the roots thickened into a walkway. Smithsonian magazine, in a March 2026 article, gives its two decks as 80 feet and 60 feet long, growing from one rubber tree over the Mawsaw River, at about 1,293 feet above sea level. The second, higher deck was added, Smithsonian reports, after floods covered the lower one and made crossing risky.

The same article puts the bridge at about 200 years old. That is an estimate. A 2019 survey led by the Technical University of Munich, published in Scientific Reports, recorded a Nongriat bridge whose age, on the statement of the residents who maintain it, is about 200 years. A living bridge keeps taking in new roots, so it has no single completion date. The science of why these bridges strengthen with age is covered in our article on the grown bridges of Meghalaya.

The trail from Tyrna

Meghalaya Tourism says you begin at the edge of the valley near Tyrna and go down about 3,500 steps. The board’s how-to-reach text for Nongriat says about 3,000 stone steps, so the count is approximate on the official pages themselves. Its Living Root Bridges page describes the walk as 3 km, passing natural pools, waterfalls and lagoons, and its Nongriat page mentions swaying suspension bridges on the way. Because the bridge lies at the bottom, the way back is the same flight of steps going up.

To reach the trailhead, take a taxi from Cherrapunji to Tyrna, which the board puts at 30 to 45 minutes and 15 km. The nearest airports it names are Guwahati, about 177 km away, and Shillong, about 89 km. For the walk it advises a local guide or a travel companion who knows the route, the terrain and the language. Beyond the bridge, the board lists Rainbow Falls about another hour on. Smithsonian notes that many Nongriat residents now work as guides on the descent.

When to go

October to March, the dry season, is the window Meghalaya Tourism recommends for the trek. Its general visitor notes for the monsoon say to carry a waterproof bag and jacket, anti-slip shoes and quick-drying clothes, to check daily forecasts and to heed warnings of heavy rain and landslides. For winter it advises warm layers and booking accommodation in advance because that is the busy season.

The monsoon is when the rivers under the bridges are at their most dangerous. Smithsonian places it usually in June and July and lists raging rivers, flash floods and landslides. The article’s author records a young root bridge taking the force of a monsoon landslide and shielding an older bridge downstream.

Staying in the village

Nongriat has fewer than 200 residents, according to Smithsonian. The article’s author lived for a week in 2017 in the village’s single community homestay and reports more than half a dozen lodging options there now. Farming has been the main livelihood and tourism is taking a larger share. Entry fees, guide rates and homestay prices differ from one travel page to the next and are set locally, so this article gives none. Meghalaya Tourism’s helpline, 1800 599 2026, is the official starting point for current information.

Other root bridge walks

Nongriat is the best known stop, and the tourism board lists others. Its Rangthylliang and Mawkyrnot page describes a guided day walk led by a root bridge architect, and the board’s Living Root Bridges page says the walk passes seven bridges. The board names the Rangthylliang 1 root bridge as the longest. It is about 53 metres long according to Mongabay India, built from the roots of two Ficus trees at Mawkyrnot, and the Munich survey’s longest measured span is 52.7 metres.

The board’s list also includes Kudengrim, with waterfalls, streams and root bridges along one trail, and Nongbareh. It lists Padu, in the East Jaintia Hills about 10 km from Amlarem, and Dawki near the Bangladesh border. Smithsonian describes the single-span Wah Thyllong bridge, 42 feet long, near the villages of Nohwet and Riwai, and says Nongblai village has more than a dozen bridges. Trails near Pynursla, Mongabay India writes, carry root ladders and hammock platforms. Meghalaya Tourism says the Rangthylliang and Mawkyrnot walk is best made from October to March, and that some bridges stay open in the monsoon with caution on slippery ground.

Who looks after the bridges

The 2019 survey asked who maintains the bridges it found. Of the bridges in that count, 12 are kept by individuals or families, 25 by a village community and 8 by a group of villages, while 14 have an unknown maintainer and 16 are untended. The paper notes that clustered bridges near settlements are mostly well kept and many isolated ones are not.

The counts differ by source. The Munich survey inventoried 76 bridges, and Smithsonian and Mongabay India repeat roughly that figure for 2019. India’s UNESCO tentative-list text refers to more than 75 villages, in 72 numbered entries, among them Nongriat (entry 44), Riwai (40), Mawlynnong (42), Rangthylliang (58) and Mawkyrnot (55). The Khyrim Syiemship Heritage Committee, with United Nations Development Programme support, has mapped more than 132 bridges and adopted 30 of them in Rangthylliang, Mawkyrnot and Mynrieng, Mongabay India reports. No source calls any of these numbers a full census.

Morningstar Khongthaw, the committee’s chairman, told Mongabay India that about 20 elders remain who are skilled in the craft and that young people apprentice with them each monsoon, the main season for weaving young roots. The committee has proposed a protected forest zone of 50 metres around each bridge. The Meghalaya government is preparing its own protection guidelines, and some local stakeholders have called that approach top-down, the same report adds.

Visiting with care

Meghalaya Tourism’s sustainable tourism page presents community-led tourism as the state’s model, with locals running homestays and guided tours, waste in tourist areas handled with bamboo bins, and rural tourism spreading visitors across many villages. The Diplomat’s 2022 report carries a photograph of visitor rules inscribed on signboards near the bridges at Nongriat, and the sensible course is to follow them.

Some bridges popular with tourists have been reinforced with concrete or steel for safety, and paths to them paved, Mongabay India reports. Meghalaya Tourism’s Living Root Bridges page says of the bridge at Padu that its aerial roots seem to be supported by reinforced elements and a concrete column. The same report says tourism income is leading some villages to farm less.

Where the UNESCO nomination stands

India placed the Jingkieng jri, Living Root Bridge Cultural Landscapes on UNESCO’s tentative list on 17 February 2022, under cultural criteria (i), (iii) and (vi). News On AIR reported on 29 January 2026 that India had submitted the nomination dossier, titled “Jingkieng Jri / Lyu Chrai Cultural Landscape”, for the 2026 to 2027 World Heritage evaluation cycle. The dossier was handed to the director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre by India’s ambassador and permanent representative to UNESCO. No decision from the World Heritage Committee appears in any source checked as of 5 November 2026.