RISANG - KSEH U PRING (Krem)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Approximately seven known cave entrances (potholes), of which three were even GPS positioned, give access to another of the allegedly -surveyed- (sportsmen standards) but actually only partly explored and mapped cave systems of Meghalaya cave system without identified name. ETYMOLOGY: About six of these entrances were named after a pine tree associated with one Mister Pring. Compare: Krem –>Kseh U Pring, Krem –>Ksey U Pring. Unacknowledged local people without identified names stated that the caves in this group have no names. The system was christened Squirrel Cave due to a number of the same in the vegetation cover on the surface. Since the Khasi / Synteng noun -u risang- means a squirrel (zoologically: Sciurus), the cave was recorded as -Krem Risang- but this is a cave name which is foreign. EVALUATION 2001a: A pothole drops to a breakdown area and a fine, scalloped and strongly joint controlled streamway (Jeffreys, Alan -Goon- (note 1) Lawrence undated 2001 Mss). EVALUATION 2002b:An impressive 25 m shaft leads to a couple of routes through boulders into a scalloped streamway which soon ends on the brink of a 70 m pitch -- The Black Bat Pot… [which drops into] varied, sporting streamway (JARRATT 2001: 34). SITUATION: On the western flank of the Shnongrim ridge, east of Sutnga and west of the valley of the Letein (Litang, Litien). Attempting to search for Krem Risang, leave the road from Ladmyrsiang to Shnongrim below Tongseng village and 30 m beyond the milestone marked 20 km. The shaft is located about 80 m downhill from the roadside in a streambed (dry in February 2001). POSITION 2001: Krem Risang: N25°19'54-: E092°29'46- (disputable if not non-sensical: unidentified precision error, unidentified geodetic datum, and unidentified GPS receiver, probably the unreliable 3-channel Magellan 310 Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt 2001.02.06 or the likewise unreliable 4-channel Magellan 2000, B.D. Kharpran Daly 2001.02.06). POSITION 2003a: Krem Kseh U Pring: N25°20'0.5-: E092°29'51.6- (±12 m, WGS84, R. F. Sheen 2003.02.14 Garmin Etrex): 1120 m asl (Neumann A 2003.02.15). POSITION 2003b: Krem Ksey U Pring, Swallet Entrance (note 2): N25°20'07.3”: E092°29'53.8” (unidentified precision error allegedly ±10 m, WGS84, Sheen R F 2003.02.14 Garmin Etrex). CAVE DESCRIPTION (Krem Risang): Entrance shaft 14 by 30 m wide, 28 m deep (tackle: 28 m of ladders down gully on right (A. 'Tony' R. Jarratt 2001.10.29 personal correspondence: Free climb / scramble and 10 m ladder climb route down far side of entrance pit later shown to us by local guide Churchill Sukhlain). Several deep joint systems on right –as facing shaft in river bed. Floor: piles of clean boulders. Way on at west end –joint controlled, 4 m wide, about 15 m high, partially floored with huge breakdown. Descent through boulders to 10 m rift and awkward climb down 3 m to bedding. This runs for 15.5 m to breakdown in larger passage. Develops into smooth vadose canyon, interrupted by breakdon, which runs for 60 m to head of deep shaft, top section 4 m deep to ledge. Beyond shaft on left, breakdown leads to vadose inlet trending back to entrance shaft and complex of joint controlled passages leading round the head of the pitch. One shaft / aven in this series is about 25 m high. Hodgson, -Yorkshire- Dave (2002.02.13 Mss: Meghalaya Diary), literally quoted (note 3), explains: Fiona, Dan, Peter. To finish surveying higher serries passage near entrance. Approx. 40 m of upwardly trending rift passage. Collection of biological specimins: eg. millipeeds, pseudo scorpians, Harvestmen, all from upper serries. The going lead was classified as a typical JRat one … CAVE DESCRIPTION 2: KHARPRAN DALY (in: DIRECTORATE … 2006: 48): A 25 m entrance shaft which could be free climbable. The cave has a couple of passages through boulders which lead into a scalloped streamway and on to a 70 m deep pitch called 'The Black Bat Pot'. Descending this pot a streamway passage is met. Length: 425 m. CAVE CONTENTS: Damp rounded gravel in first crawl. Otherwise cave very clean to head of pitch. Some high level soft black sediment. Whole route littered with pieces of branches. Calcite covering (speleothems) on walls at intervals. CAVE LIFE: Alan Jeffreys reports black bats (Chiroptera), relatively large red / brown spiders of unknowable size and black water boatmen (pigmented pond scaters?). Dan Harries collected on 20.02.2001 one specimen of a blind spider: Arachnida, Aranea, Ctenidae? spec.; on 23.02.2001 one specimen of Arachnida, Aranea, Pholcidae spec., species 1. KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE (2007: 43 table 2) list Krem Risang among the caves in the Sutnga area (Litang valley: Shnongrim Ridge) in which the cave dwelling, nemacheilid loach Schistura prob. papulifera (Teleostei: Balituridae) has been recorded: Date: Feb. 2001 D. Harries: [during the peak of the dry season] Common in pools of standing water in lower series of the cave.n, which runs for 60 m to head of deep shaft, top section 4 m deep to ledge. Beyond shaft on left, breakdown leads to vadose inlet trending back to entrance shaft and complex of joint controlled passages leading round the head of the pitch. One shaft / aven in this series is about 25 m high. Hodgson, -Yorkshire- Dave (2002.02.13 Mss: Meghalaya Diary), literally quoted (note 3), explains: Fiona, Dan, Peter. To finish surveying higher serries passage near entrance. Approx. 40 m of upwardly trending rift passage. Collection of biological specimins: eg. millipeeds, pseudo scorpians, Harvestmen, all from upper serries. The going lead was classified as a typical JRat one … CAVE DESCRIPTION 2: KHARPRAN DALY (in: DIRECTORATE … 2006: 48): A 25 m entrance shaft which could be free climbable. The cave has a couple of passages through boulders which lead into a scalloped streamway and on to a 70 m deep pitch called 'The Black Bat Pot'. Descending this pot a streamway passage is met. Length: 425 m. CAVE CONTENTS: Damp rounded gravel in first crawl. Otherwise cave very clean to head of pitch. Some high level soft black sediment. Whole route littered with pieces of branches. Calcite covering (speleothems) on walls at intervals. CAVE LIFE: Alan Jeffreys reports black bats (Chiroptera), relatively large red / brown spiders of unknowable size and black water boatmen (pigmented pond scaters?). Dan Harries collected on 20.02.2001 one specimen of a blind spider: Arachnida, Aranea, Ctenidae? spec.; on 23.02.2001 one specimen of Arachnida, Aranea, Pholcidae spec., species 1. KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE (2007: 43 table 2) list Krem Risang among the caves in the Sutnga area (Litang valley: Shnongrim Ridge) in which the cave dwelling, nemacheilid loach Schistura prob. papulifera (Teleostei: Balituridae) has been recorded: Date: Feb. 2001 D. Harries: [during the peak of the dry season] Common in pools of standing water in lower series of the cave.