The David Scott Trail: Tharia to Sohbar...Almost

The David Scott trail was established by an Administrator of the Khasi Hills district of Assam by the same name. He lived there from 1802 to 1832. He was instrumental in the construction of this horse cart road from Sylhet to Guwahati through the Khasi Hills. Presently, the trail exists only in fragments. The most famous segment is from Mawphlang, around 35 km from Shillong, to Ladmawphlang, a 16km stretch.

Ksanboklang took me to the stretch of the David Scott trail that starts near Tharia, at the foothills of the Cherrapunjee plateau, adjacent to the border with Bangladesh. He told me that this segment is about 3 km long ascent upto the Sohbar village. He said the trail takes one hour and is perfectly doable if I am interested. And interested I was. So off we went on an impromptu hike. What we saw was a perfect gem, hidden from the eyes of the outside world, probably thankfully so,  being located in the hub of limestone mining in Meghalaya, where hill upon hill has been flattened and the mining industry runs without any apparent regulation. The trail is a cobblestone path with not a single step. At places, stairs were constructed by the British themselves for the support party. The trail itself disappears into the vegetation at such points only to meet re-emerge where the stairs end. The trail is now used by the villagers. The sections not used were overgrown by thick vegetation. Midway through the trail, Ksanboklang took me into the forest to a point where an embankment was discernable under the vegetation. This embankment was going straight uphill, rather than along the slope. This was the railway line, he said. Now I could make out why this segment of the CCSR was operated by ropes.

We resumed our hike on the David Scott trail. The trail now passed under a thick canopy of trees, the cobblestone pathway thick with moss. Abandoned resting points marked by pillars greeted us on the way, telling us tales of the caravans that would have rested and probably camped there. Images of the horses grazing during rest crossed my mind. Gradually the trail wound its way up till we reach a dead end of thick vegetation. Some villagers were clearing it and led us to a stairway leading to the Shnongkawar village. About 600 steps up later we entered the village to find that the David Scott trail was running alongside the concrete footpaths in the village. Shnongkawar village was quite a revelation in terms of cleanliness. A remote border village, with not even a proper road to speak of and minimum government presence, was spotlessly clean with fruit bearing trees all around, gardens in all houses and footpaths painted white. Dustbins lined the footpath every 20m. Nothing can beat the Khasis in cleanliness. It comes from within them. We had our lunch at Shnongkawar and headed back.