Major Waterfalls of India

Which waterfalls hold India’s height and width records?

Height and width measure very different things, so India has separate record-holders for each:

• Kunchikal Falls (Karnataka’s Shimoga district) is India’s tallest waterfall, dropping about 455 metres.
• Nohkalikai Falls, near Sohra (Cherrapunji) in Meghalaya, is India’s tallest single-drop, or “plunge,” waterfall, at about 340 metres.
• Dudhsagar Falls, on the Mahadayi River in Goa, is a four-tiered waterfall about 310 metres tall.
• Jog Falls (also called Gersoppa Falls) sits on the Sharavati River in Karnataka and drops about 253 metres, splitting into four named cascades: Raja, Rani, Roarer, and Rocket.
• Chitrakoot Falls, on the Indravati River in Chhattisgarh, is only about 30 metres tall but nearly 300 metres wide, making it India’s widest waterfall.

Which other named waterfalls come up often?

• Dhuandhar Falls sits on the Narmada River at Bhedaghat, near Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, close to the famous marble rocks gorge. Jabalpur falls in the Mahakoshal region, not Malwa, a common exam trap.
• Hundru Falls sits on the Subarnarekha River, in Ranchi district, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau, Jharkhand.
• Athirappilly Falls, on the Chalakudy River in Kerala, is often called the “Niagara of South India” and is the state’s largest waterfall.
• Barehipani Falls, inside the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, is a twin-tiered waterfall and one of India’s tallest, at roughly 399 metres.
• Talakona Falls, Andhra Pradesh’s tallest waterfall, sits inside the Sri Venkateswara Wildlife Sanctuary in the Eastern Ghats.

Why does the same waterfall sometimes get called “India’s Niagara”?

A tall, narrow “plunge” waterfall and a short, wide “cascade” waterfall can both be called record-holders, just for different records:

• Chitrakoot Falls widens further during the monsoon, taking on a horseshoe shape, earning it the nickname “Niagara Falls of India.”
• Dudhsagar Falls sits inside the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park, within the Western Ghats.
• Jog Falls sits close to Sohra (Cherrapunji), one of the wettest inhabited places on Earth, whose extreme rainfall feeds several tall waterfalls.
• The Sharavathi river, which forms Jog Falls, flows through the Sharavathi Lion-Tailed Macaque Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Many waterfalls, including Chitrakoot and Dhuandhar, look genuinely different across the year: monsoon floods swell them, while a dry winter can reduce them to a trickle.

Which other southern waterfalls are worth knowing?

• Shivanasamudra Falls, on the Kaveri River in Karnataka, splits around Shivanasamudra Island into two branches, Gaganachukki and Bharachukki.
• Meenmutty Falls, in the Western Ghats of Kerala’s Wayanad district, is one of the state’s tallest waterfalls.
• Iruppu Falls, in Karnataka’s Coorg (Kodagu) district, is closely tied to the Lakshmana Tirtha River and draws large pilgrim crowds during Shivratri.

Why do India’s tallest waterfalls cluster in just two regions?

Waterfalls form where a river crosses a sudden change in rock hardness, or drops off a steep escarpment edge:

• The Western Ghats and the Meghalaya plateau are classic, textbook examples of such edges.
• India’s tallest waterfalls cluster heavily in the Western Ghats (Karnataka, Goa) and the Meghalaya plateau, both wet, steep-terrain zones shaped by heavy monsoon rainfall.
• Many of these waterfalls anchor major tourism economies for their surrounding districts.
• Several, including Jog Falls and Dudhsagar Falls, also sit near hydroelectric infrastructure; a steep natural drop is exactly the terrain power planners look for.
• Shivanasamudra Falls once hosted Asia’s first hydroelectric power station, commissioned in 1902 to supply power to the Kolar Gold Fields.

Why is Jog Falls’ own river in the news?

The ₹10,000 crore, 2,000 MW Sharavathi Pumped Storage Project is proposed on the very river that forms Jog Falls, inside the Sharavathi Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. (Source: Deccan Herald, July 2026)

• A National Board of Wildlife committee rejected the project, citing large-scale, long-term damage to the endangered Lion-Tailed Macaque’s habitat.
• A new government-commissioned report has instead recommended approval, and even amending the Wildlife (Protection) Act to exempt such projects in the sanctuary’s eco-sensitive zone.
• Karnataka’s Chief Minister said on 21 July 2026 that the government will secure all required permits, despite the NBWL rejection. (Source: The New Indian Express)