In a particular region in India, the local people train the roots of living tree into robust bridges across the streams. As the time passes these bridges become stronger. These unique ‘Living Root Bridges’ are found in

The correct answer is A, Meghalaya. Living root bridges are built by the Khasi and Jaintia communities in the East and West Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills, around places like Cherrapunji and Mawsynram, where rainfall is very high. The bridges are made by guiding the aerial roots of the rubber fig (Ficus elastica) across a stream over a scaffold of areca nut trunks or bamboo. The roots fuse and thicken over 10 to 15 years, and the bridge gets stronger with age. Nongriat village has a famous double-decker example.

• Himachal Pradesh is in the Western Himalaya. Its traditional craft is timber architecture, such as the kath-kuni style, not root bridges.
• Jharkhand sits on the Chota Nagpur plateau. Its tribal material culture is known for other crafts, and it has no tradition of living root bridges.
• Tamil Nadu has Western Ghats and Nilgiri landscapes, but the root-training practice is not found there.

This is a good example of indigenous, community-based engineering that is low-carbon and suited to local ecology. It links to Mains questions on traditional knowledge and climate-resilient infrastructure.

Trap: Many aspirants pick a northeastern state at random or think any bamboo bridge belongs to Arunachal or Sikkim. Tie the feature to its specific tribe and geography.