Netarhat

Netarhat sits on a broad plateau in Latehar district, high enough for pine and eucalyptus plantations to grow beside native sal, and cool enough that the British used it as a retreat and later located a residential school here, the Netarhat Vidyalaya, founded in 1954 and modelled on the Doon School. The town is small and the routine is fixed by the light. Sunset belongs to Magnolia Point, four kilometres out, where a small memorial recalls the local story of an English girl who rode her horse off the escarpment for love of a Gwala boy; from the edge the ground falls away into layered ridges that go blue and then purple as the sun drops behind them.

Sunrise is at Koel View Point, where the valley of the North Koel river fills with mist that burns off in slow sheets. Between the two, walk to Upper Ghaghri Falls, a short forest path to a stream dropping into a rock bowl, and drive down to Lower Ghaghri, twelve kilometres away and quieter. Sixty kilometres on, past Mahuadanr, Lodh Falls sends the Burha river 143 metres down in the highest fall in Jharkhand, thundering after the monsoon.

The plateau is Oraon and Kharia country; village houses are painted with white and ochre geometry and the weekly haat is worth timing your visit for.