{"id":4784,"date":"2026-01-31T11:49:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T06:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=4784"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:52:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:22:53","slug":"what-is-meghalayas-living-root-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-meghalayas-living-root-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Root Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Living Root Bridges Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, India submitted Meghalaya\u2019s living root bridges to UNESCO for World Heritage status.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>About Living Root Bridges<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The living root bridges are locally known as <\/span><b>Jingkieng Jri or Lyu Chrai<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are nestled across the lush southern slopes of the <\/span><b>Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are masterpieces of bioengineering <\/span><b>created by indigenous communities.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are grown by <\/span><b>indigenous Khasi and Jaintia tribes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over a time period of 15 to 30 years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These bridges range in span from 15 feet to 250 feet, and last for several centuries.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Construction of Living Root Bridges<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bridges are grown by methods of tree-shaping <\/span><b>using the aerial roots of Ficus Elastica<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Rubber fig tree\/Indian rubber tree).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The underlying growth process involves <\/span><b>recurring inosculation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (joining by twining) of Ficus aerial root fibres over a gorge or river.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The process begins with placing of young pliable aerial roots <\/span><b>in hollowed Areca catechu<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> trunks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These provide essential nutrition and protection from the weather, and also perform as root guidance systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This assemblage is <\/span><b>structurally supported by a bamboo scaffold<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which spans the river and performs as a temporary river crossing for the local community.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over time, as the aerial roots increase in strength and thickness, the Areca catechu trunks are no longer required.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsonair.gov.in\/india-submits-meghalayas-living-root-bridges-to-unesco-for-world-heritage-status\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">News On Air<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Living Root Bridges are nestled across the lush southern slopes of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya. Read more about Meghalaya\u2019s Living Root Bridge, Construction, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":85077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5045,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-4784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-living-root-bridge","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85126,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4784\/revisions\/85126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}