Is Cherrapunji, Meghalaya's most attractive tourist destination, losing its status as the wettest place on Earth? For over a century, Sohra, the local name for Cherrapunji, has been described in the geography textbooks as a place that receives the highest annual rainfall in the globe. However, in recent times, the status of Cherrapunji has been challenged, as records of high rainfall reported at Hawiian islands and coastal Cameroon regions. In the past decade, a group of scientists from the North Eastern Hill University and Polish Academy of Sciences has been trying to crack this geographic puzzle and study the climatic phenomenon on the Cherrapunji spur. The Indo-Polish study revealed that the spur is nearly bereft of soil, and suggested that it was rather the natural climatic phenomenon rather than anthropogenic factors which led to such landscape evaluation. Of course, human activities only aggravated the process. The team, which collected and compared the rainfall data of the past decades recorded at the several weather stations of the Indian Meteorological Department, as well as other sources, also suggested that there may be other areas of high rainfall such as Mawsynram. The team compared the rainfall data recorded at IMD maintained Cherrapunji and the State-run (PWD) station at Mawsynram, located about 15 km west of Cherrapunji at 100 meter higher altitude (1401 m above sea level). The records reveal that between the years (1986-2000), Mawsynram received a higher annual rainfall of 12,666 mm than the neighbouring Cherrapunji. Of course, the scientists said the difference in rainfall might be due to "variations in methods of collection of rainfall data by different agencies or due to variations in the elevation of these two stations." They also recognized that unlike the IMD station at Cheerapunjui, which is manned by permanent qualified staff, the "observers (at PWD-run rain gauge station) at Mawsynram were changing frequently and some of the noted daily records were problematic," which, they believed, needs to be studied further. Two years ago, a team of Japanese geographers from Kyoto University, initiated a project with the NEHU scientists, to study the climate change in Cherrapunji. Under the NEHU-Japanese collaborative project, the scientists are now trying to fine tune the data with better equipments, and find out, may be more accurately, the spots of high rainfall on the plateau. Besides being an area of extreme rainfall and humidity, Cherrapunji has attracted attention of scientists and travelers for decades to one of the world's unique geographic location, which is, contrary to their imagination, turning into a "wet desert"! The Government of Meghalaya has set up a task force, drawing up members from inter-disciplinary sectors to suggest how the degrading watershed of the Cherrapunji spur could be improved. The programme will be launched on Thursday, the World Environment Day. For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in