SAWRAI SADA CAVE

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An approximately 4 m wide and 2 m high cave entrance (estimated after TALMALE, S S 2011: 40 image 2) leads to a solitary cave chamber with a horizontal ceiling, which is about 5 x 5 x 5 meter in dimension and formed, as far as known, in lateritic stone down to the floor (TALMALE, S S 2011: 40). ETYMOLOGY: The meaning and origin of the two distinct cave names Sawrai Sada Cave (TALMALE 2011: 40 text; TALMALE 2011: 41 image caption) and Sawarai Sada Cave (TALMALE 2011: 40 image 1 caption, image 2 caption) has not yet been discovered. SITUATION: About 60 km or 70 km along the road south-west from Kolhapur (N16°42': E074°13') and somewhere in the forest covering the Western Ghats, which was declared a Bison Sanctuary in 1958 but re-named Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary (note 1) and culminates at an altitude of 991 m (India Road Atlas, Eicher Goodearth 2006: 98 C4). TALMALE, S S (2011: 40), however, locates Sawarai Sada Cave or Sawrai Sada Cave 9.7 m vertically above the highest point an at an elevation of 3283 feet (1000.66 m) and near (unspecified precision error) 16°27.513 N, 73°53.893 E corresponding to 16°27'30.8” N: 73°53'53.6” E (unidentified geodetic datum). CAVE LIFE - bats (Chiroptera): … five specimens of Fulvus [sic! qua: Fulvous] Fruit Bat (Rousettus leschenaultii) were mist netted from Sawrai Sada cave (16°27.513 N, 73°53.893 E) … Around 500+ individuals of the Fulvus [sic!] Fruit Bat were observed in this cave (TALMALE, S S 2011: 40). at an elevation of 3283 feet (1000.66 m) and near (unspecified precision error) 16°27.513 N, 73°53.893 E corresponding to 16°27'30.8” N: 73°53'53.6” E (unidentified geodetic datum). CAVE LIFE - bats (Chiroptera): … five specimens of Fulvus [sic! qua: Fulvous] Fruit Bat (Rousettus leschenaultii) were mist netted from Sawrai Sada cave (16°27.513 N, 73°53.893 E) … Around 500+ individuals of the Fulvus [sic!] Fruit Bat were observed in this cave (TALMALE, S S 2011: 40).