Jog Falls
Interesting facts
- The Sharavathi plunges into a rocky chasm about 290 metres deep, and the Raja stream falls in a single unbroken column of roughly 253 metres.
- Jog is ranked the third-highest waterfall in India, after Nohkalikai Falls in Meghalaya and Dudhsagar Falls in Goa.
- Its older English name, Gersoppa Falls, comes from the village of Gerusoppa about 30 km downstream, on the way to the river's mouth at Honnavar on the Arabian Sea.
- Above the falls the river runs over a rocky bed roughly 250 yards wide, and the waterfall spreads across an average width of about 470 metres.
- The hydroelectric scheme that tames the falls was planned by the Kingdom of Mysore in 1943 and has generated power since 1948.
- The power project was first named after the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, and later renamed the Mahatma Gandhi Hydroelectric Project.
- In the monsoon the falls can merge into a single plunging curtain, turning a segmented waterfall into one wall of water.
- India Post featured Jog Falls on a stamp in its 2003 series on the country's waterfalls.
Why it is worth it
In the Western Ghats of Karnataka, the Sharavathi River reaches the edge of a gorge and falls about 253 metres in four separate streams, which local tradition has named Raja, Rani, Roarer and Rocket. It is among the highest waterfalls in India, and the four names describe it well: Raja drops in a single unbroken column, Roarer crashes into a rocky cup before tumbling on, Rocket shoots out in jets, and Rani slides down the rock face more quietly in a sheet of foam.
The falls change completely with the seasons. Upstream, the Linganamakki Dam holds back the river for a hydroelectric project, so in the dry months the streams can shrink to threads against the dark rock. During and just after the monsoon they swell into a thundering white wall, often half hidden in drifting spray and cloud, with the forested gorge around them at its greenest.
There are two main viewpoints on opposite sides of the gorge: one at Jog, on the Shivamogga side in Sagara taluk, and the British Bungalow viewpoint on the Uttara Kannada side, close to the falls. From the top, about 1,400 steps lead down into the valley towards the foot of the falls, which gives a very different sense of their height than the view from the rim.
Getting there
The falls are about 24 km from Sagara, from where buses run to Jog. The nearest railway station is Talaguppa, about 13 km away. Shivamogga, about 100 km away, has its own airport; the nearest airport in the directory is Hubballi Airport (HBX), about 129 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Jog Falls is a series of large, segmented waterfalls on the Sharavati River in Karnataka state of India, created by the river plunging approximately 253 metres (830 ft) and splitting into four distinct cascades. The waterfalls are situated in the Sagar taluk of the Shivamogga district.
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