now on bbc news the travel show: india: episode two. india. more than 75 years after independence, this emerging world power of more than a billion people is still changing. i'm on a journey to two extremes of this vast subcontinent. it's just crystal, it's hard crystals. white salt — probably taste it. i began in gujarat, in the far west... this is genuinely incredible. i'm in heaven. looks pretty crowded! ..and this week, i've travelled 2,000 miles over to the north—east. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra and about to go to a very spiritual place. it's one of india's lesser—known regions... we're really high up. and just to my right is the border with bangladesh. 0ne... ..a part of the country that prides itself on its traditions... he makes it look so easy, and it's incredibly difficult. ..but it's also looking forward and embracing progress. so now, i'm on my way to go and see assam's very own eco—warrior. it's going to be an incredible adventure. india's north—east, a collection of eight states almost cut off from the rest of this vast country, but for a tiny strip of land. at partition, a large swathe of this region was sectioned off to become east pakistan, which later became bangladesh, leaving the indian area landlocked. it's geographically and culturally out on a limb. this is frontier country, little known to tourists and other indians alike. they call it the "land of clouds", but that's because of the severe monsoon season. hilly, remote, and the air is so crisp and fresh, and the views, well, simply spectacular. it's this cool climate that made the state of meghalaya and its capital, shillong, a popular retreat for the british during the colonial era. they dubbed it the "scotland of the east". looks pretty crowded! but what about the city today? there's only one way to find out. hope we can get on. i take a bus into the city centre. so, it's a modern industrial town these days, shillong. brakes grind whoa, feel it...! i think those brakes might need a bit of work. so, tell me, what do you think about shillong? this is your home city, yeah? yes. what do you think about this place? like, you see the people, like, you know... more than half of meghalaya's population belong to the khasi tribe. and here at shillong's british—built polo ground, a traditional local sport is thriving — but it sure ain't polo. every afternoon, hundreds of people gather from all around to take part in a really interesting daily ritual. this is called teer, derived from the hindi word for "arrow". a target's mounted, and 50 archers have just a few minutes to hit it as many times as possible. the significance of the sport dates back to the early 1800s, when khasi warriors defended their homelands not with guns or swords, but with bows and arrows. i'm aiming for the target, obviously, which is... ..which one of them? the small one. the small one there? 0k. so, why�*s it going to the ground like that? show me. get out the way, everyone. here we go. he stammers wow! now, that... now we're getting there! now we're... now we're getting there. spectators get involved by taking bets on the number of arrows that hit the target. and, crucially, it's only the last two numbers of the total score that matter. they're all added up. all added up. and the last two digits, that will be the result. 695 arrows. so, 95 is the result. meghalaya became one of the few states to legalise gambling in 1982. people here are very superstitious. they'll dream about their dead family, a dog, a cat, and they'll try to make it into numbers. so, i have 200 rupees of my hard—earned money here. i want to go and gamble. can you show me how to do it? yeah. come on, then. so, let's go to one of these counters. speaks in khasi namaste, hello. hello, sir. i want to gamble on, erm...a lucky number, yeah? yeah. two digits, lucky number. i'm going to go for... ..39. 39? yeah. and i'm going to put... 100. ..100 rupees on 39. on 39. oh, and then my other bet, i'm going to bet on 77. can you fix it so i win? they laugh yeah. it depends on your fortune, though. oh, it depends on my fortune? i had a dream last night! i had a dream that... you can dream anything. ..that a strange dog walked past me, and that dog had the number 39 on it. is that the kind of dreams we all have? 0h, who knows? they laugh wish me luck. it's a tense moment as the numbers are counted... 310, 320... ..four... ..and my dream turns out to be a shaggy dog story. . .seven. 77 was my number — 97 was the result. still two of my lucky numbers! nine and seven. next, i head out of the city to explore the region's famed khasi hills and villages. incredible to think that, despite landscapes like this, the north—east is one of the least—visited areas of india. but things are slowly changing. we've been travelling out of shillong into the countryside, towards the bangladesh border, for about two hours now. and it's been pretty bumpy and rough roads — until, suddenly, we have reached this bit, and it's a beautifully smooth road that wouldn't look out of place in a major town. and we're heading towards a village that's got a really interesting reputation. the khasi hills are the only place in the world where you find bridges grown from the roots of the india rubber tree, or ficus elastica. we learned that it was constructed during the year 1840. this place was meant for the villagers to cross over the river when they tended to their daily life, mainly agriculture. during that time, there was no partition, no bangladesh, no pakistan. so, we had that link. during monsoon, the khasi hills are hit by record—breaking downpours — more than 20 feet of rain in a month. these are some of the wettest places on the planet. but people here have found an ingenious way to harness nature in order to prevent the village being cut off by floods. just tell me what they're doing right now. now they are tying the bamboos to cross on both sides of the river, so that the roots of this tree would be woven along this bamboo. bamboo acts as a scaffolding, which helps connect roots from trees growing on opposite river banks. this is skilled and occasionally dangerous work. thanks to continuous repairs, bridges like this have stood firm for generations. and it will probably remain for many more to come. so, we leave meghalaya and head to assam... ..passing through some of the 25,000 tea plantations that have made this region world—famous. we're on our way tojorhat, just a few hundred kilometres from india's border with china and thejumping—off point for our next adventure. i'm on the banks of the mighty river brahmaputra and about to go to a very spiritual place, the island of majuli, which is one of the biggest river islands in the world. now, there's 150,000 people on that island and only six ferries a day, so it's really crammed each one. just looking at the list of prices for all the different categories. passengers, 15 rupees. it's ok, it's reasonable. then you go down, past the vehicles, and animals have to pay. buffalo has to pay a5! bull, cow, 30. and then, the poor elephant has to fork out 907 rupees. perhaps fortunately, none of these creatures were travelling with us today. and incredibly, after a few last—minute panics... ..we�*re set to go. i climb onto the corrugated aluminium roof tojoin men who do this trip day in, day out. starting in tibet, the brahmaputra river is nearly 2,000 miles long. it's second only to the amazon in the volume of water that rushes through it. so, an interesting game of cards going on here. i think they're playing whist. ifeel like i should join in, but it may be a private game with high stakes. we arrive at majuli, and it's turmoil again trying to get off the boat. he laughs to avoid the queue, there is a sneaky way out, which basically involves climbing onto another boat and going down the steps that way. do you know what? i think i'm going to take that one. well, here we are on land. it doesn't look quite as spiritual as i imagined. and if you look way into the distance, it's just one big, flat land of desert. but let's see. majuli island is home to 22 monasteries — or sattras — initially established in the 16th century by the assamese guru sankardev. boys are instructed from a very young age in the religion he preached, vaishnavism, an offshoot of hinduism. the monks are celibate and, according to their beliefs, they worship only one god, follow a vegetarian diet and reject the caste system. here at uttar kamalabari, the doctrine includes this special art form. this form of classical dance is now recognised by the authorities as a genre in its own right, and many of these monks have performed around the world. that was amazing. thank you very much indeed. and i know you spend a lifetime learning the skills of this, but can i have a go? can i try? like this? yeah, yeah. 0h, er, arm is through here. yeah? yeah. 0k. first type is... yeah... they hit drums hey. no. hit...? sorry, wrong one. very good. thank you so much. one, two, three, four, one... there are 64 positions in this classical dance — and i'm having trouble with the first two. it's very difficult. one, two, three... let them play. without the grace as well. no grace whatsoever. er, no, no... he makes it look so easy, and it's incredibly difficult. and i don't think... i'm just going to leave it to the experts, you know? i just... you know, sometimes you just have to give up and let them carry on. an exquisite performance. but there's one problem, one very big problem — and that is that this island may simply not exist in just a few decades�* time. hard to believe at the moment, but there is a genuine worry that majuli will be submerged and destroyed within 20 years. in the last 70 years, it's shrunk in size by two thirds... ..and a majority of the original 65 monasteries have gone. every monsoon, the brahmaputra river swells, eroding the terrain around it. bit by bit, the land is disappearing. but there is hope. so now, i'm on my way in a tractor to go and see a man whose life's mission has been to try and tackle the flooding that's afflicted majuli. he is basically assam's very own eco—warrior. sadly, these are areas that get completely deluged when the monsoon hits. there's some water there that we have to cross. for more than a0 years, jadev payeng's taken on an extraordinary challenge — to save this land from vanishing. and so his lifelong calling began. jadev is known today as "the forest man of india". he began planting trees so the roots would bind the soil, soak up excess water and prevent the land from being eroded by flooding. from a barren landscape, he's created a forest the size of new york's central park. and he feels this will be more effective in saving nearby majuli than following government flood prevention schemes. so, we are now going to do the ritual that every guest that comes here is asked to do, which is to plant a tree. what kind of tree is this? so, i'm going to put this in here... yeah? it's good? jadev has spoken at environmental summits all around the world, and his roll call of guests is equally international. wow! and i do know that everyone who plants a tree, when it grows, they put a plaque down with their name on it. so, i'm going to have that privilege? wow. fantastic. yes. thank you. and so to my final day in assam, and a different kind of ritualistic celebration of nature. if there's one recurring theme throughout my trip in the north—east, it's the sense of community kind of everywhere, really. and there's nothing better to illustrate that than this — a local village going down to the river to celebrate harvest. this community was started in 1939 by a young woman who came from the mountains in search of food. gradually, she found that, ok, this place is quite better for her because it's close to the water and civilisation can grow up. so, finally, she brings her family here, followed by her brother, and this particular village is the entire family, her own clan. really? all come from that one woman? yeah, that's right. really? fascinating, wow! this is a much—loved annual celebration, and people of all ages gather to muck in, using fishing methods that have been passed down through generations. dig it in. yeah? dig it in. a little stumping, like this? yeah. yeah, stumping. yeah? then you pull it towards you, and you've got to... 0h, we got to pull the stick, yeah, at the top... and look! they laugh you can't see this. have you got something? it's just full of fish. 0k. it's just full of fish, but don't look. this is today's catch? wow! that is pretty good. and this, you will cook now? he translates yeah? excellent, wow. beautiful. good—looking fish! so, my trek across india from border to border is almost over. and it's been a real journey of discovery for me off the beaten track. this isn't india on tap, kind of instant gratification, which some people are accustomed to. but the rewards, if you make the effort, are immense. asnake?! ooh! hey! wow! can they bite? yeah, it does. it bites? is it poisonous? no, not much. not much?! can i get out now? hello. you probably don't need me to tell you that this is the fourth consecutive weekend when low pressure has been in charge of our weather. and the low that's been with us during saturday has brought some very strong winds, some very heavy rain, quite a potent weather system. in fact, it was named storm antoni by the met office. this shield of cloud, you can see, though, the area of cloud has been rolling eastwards, and the area of low pressure will clear eastwards during sunday. and that will allow for a somewhat drier and brighter day. still quite breezy to start off across eastern england, with cloud and some splashes of rain. but most of us will get to see some sunshine through the day, albeit with quite a few showers, some heavy, thundery ones particularly affecting parts of scotland. temperatures a little bit higher than they have been — 17,18,19 degrees. this is not particularly impressive for this point in august, but it should be a warmer day than saturday in many places. now, during sunday night, with largely clear skies overhead, with lighter winds, temperatures are set to drop. it's going to be quite a cool and fresh night, even in the towns and cities down to eight or nine degrees. some spots in the countryside will get chillier than that. but after that fresh start, monday should at least bring some spells of sunshine. and while there will be some showers, there probably won't be too many. later in the day, though, we will see more cloud rolling in towards the south west of england, parts of wales and northern ireland. temperatures, if anything, just a little bit higher — 16—21 degrees celsius. now, as we move out of monday into tuesday, we will see this next frontal system pushing in from the west, but this is going to be quite a weak affair. so it will bring quite a lot of cloud, could turn things quite misty and murky for some coast and hills in wales and the south west of england. there'll be some bits and pieces of rain, and at the same time, this brisk northerly wind will bring the odd shower into northern scotland. temperatures between 16—20 degrees in most places. wednesday, still signs of a weak frontal system bringing some cloud, bringing some bits and pieces of rain. but there is likely to be a lot of dry weather, some spells of sunshine. the winds will be quite light and temperatures will start to climb —17—24 degrees. and that certainly looks like the first sign of a change. as we move into thursday, we see high pressure building to the east of us, low pressure to the west. this weather set—up will bring some warmer air in ourdirection. so thursday is likely to be the warmest day we'll have seen for quite some time. still some large areas of cloud around, but some sunny spells as well. and the vast majority should be dry. maybe just the odd shower creeping into northern ireland later in the day. but have a look at the temperatures. quite a change — 25 degrees for glasgow and cardiff, 26 for birmingham and london. a couple of places might get just a little warmer than that. however, does look like we will then see a frontal system pushing eastwards, which will cool things off again into next weekend. low pressure still quite close by, particularly up towards the north and the west. but it does look like high pressure will have a bit more of an influence on our weather, keeping things that bit drier further south and east. so for next weekend, low pressure still fairly close by, but i think it should be a little bit less unsettled. there'll be a bit more in the way of dry weather, and it should feeljust a little bit warmer, as well. that's all from me. bye for now. live from london, this is bbc news. at least 25 people are dead after an express train derails in southern pakistan. 80 others are reported injured. president zelensky says a russian guided missile has hit a blood transfusion centre in northeast ukraine. he described the attack as a war crime. in niger, a deadline set by west african leaders for the militaryjunta to step down and reinstate the country's president is now hours away. and at the women's world cup, the defending champions the usa are knocked out by sweden after a tense penalty shootout. we start with breaking news from southern pakistan, where at least

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