Elephant Dung Cave, Lumshnong
25.187200,92.350800
Description
A cave entrance (long belay and 8 m ladder) gives access to a pothole with noticeable air current (air flow) which leads across gour dams to 150 m of walking passage. At a T-junction, an unspecified »left turn« (facing an unidentified direction) leads to a choke and a correspondingly unspecified »right« (in an unidentified direction) slopes down across a boulder pile to a relic stream cave passage where fallen »stal« (speleothems) indicates either visits by sports cavers in search of recreational devastation or, perhaps, an earthquake event or two. Fully nothing was noticed or observed in a 100 m long »Gypsum Passage« on a self-centred person's »left« (facing an unspecified direction). Clambering somewhere up and down a boulder pile leads to a fragile gour passage of which the pools contain fish. Going up another boulder pile and straight down a loose boulder slope joins Synrang –>Pamiang mainstream at the end of what was christened »Loch Borolan« by outsiders. ETYMOLOGY: No autochthonous, indigenous or locally known name has been identified for what outsiders, who had found this entrance from inside the cave, simply christened »Elephant Shit Cave« (in honour of certain dollops) but disguised their fabrication -- as a Pseudokhasi "Krem Eit Hati" or »Elephant Dung Cave« (note 1). This cave entrance is possibly known to people in the Lumshnong area -- but this is mere guesswork -- by the name of »Krem Umsngat« (Jarratt 2002.04.20 Mss after Spindro Dkhar). All known is that a certain »Krem Umsngad« or »Krem Umsngat« (note 2) had been »noted and spelled by Ba Spindro« (Jarratt, Anthony 'Tony' R. 2002.04.20 personal correspondence). SITUATION: At a walking distance of 45 minutes in an unidentified direction from an unspecified starting point (without GPS position) somewhere in the long-stretched road-side village of Thangskai (25°11'40”N: 92°22'30”E). APPROACH: The cave entrance is reached by the track past Krem –>Malo to "the monolith" (a solitary standing stone near N25°11'34": E92°21'23") and by following a vague 4WD track to the south-west (233°). Turn right at a junction without GPS position, down into jungle for 1 km past junction on right (without identified direction), take jungle track to right into an unidentified direction at a spot without GPS position and circle round a depression without GPS position to a track leading down past abandoned coal mine without GPS position. The use of GPS is essential. CAVE LIFE: Fischer, Christian W. (2001.02.09 Mss) lists Spiders: Heteropoda spec.; Crayfish: Palaemon cf cavernicola (one specimen collected, in coll. University of Ulm, Germany); Crabs: Telaphusa indet; Dustlice (one specimen collected, in coll. Fischer, Ehingen, Germany); Moths: cf Tineidae indet (two specimens collected, in coll. Fischer, Ehingen, Germany); Fish: Cobitidae spec. (two specimens collected, in coll. Fischer, Ehingen, Germany). KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE (2007) describe with the nemacheiline loach (note 3) Schistura papulifera (Teleostei: Balitoridae), which was collected »from a cave [called »Krem Umsngat« but meaning Krem Eit Hati] of the Synrang Pamiang system … the first strictly hypogean loach from India [note 4]. … It is distinguished from all other known species of Schistura by having the lower half of the head covered by small skin projections and 5 pores in the supratemporal canal of the cephalic lateral-line system. In addition, it has a white body and vestigial eyes.«
NOTE 1: ka eit (Khasi, noun), binomial: ka eit - ka ksem (SINGH, N 1906: 75) dung (SINGH, N 1906: 75; SINGH, N 1920: 142; BLAH, E 2007: 86); excrement (SINGH, N 1906: 75; BLAH, E 2007: 96); scum (SINGH, N 1906: 75); stool (SINGH, N 1906: 75; SINGH, N 1920: 498; BLAH, E 2007: 289). NOTE 2: This cave entrance once has been referred to as »Krem Umsngat entrance (25°11'14”N, 92°21'03”E) to Synrang Pamiang cave system« (KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE (2007: 36) but »there was some confusion about which entrance had been used on the trip when the fish were collected. I spoke to Tony Boycott (who collected them) and the location information given is based on this. In the 2003 version of your cave registry 'Krem Umsngat' is given as a synonym for 'Krem Eit Hati' (page 126) and the coordinates are derived from this [see: Krem –>Umsngat, Lumshnong]. I used 'Krem Umsngat' because to the best of our knowledge (again, derived from the registry) it is the local name whereas 'Krem Eit Hati' is a slightly frivolous name given by the explorers« (Dr. Daniel B. Harries 2003.03.13 Mss). NOTE 3: Dr. Daniel B. Harries (2003.03.13 personal correspondence) told me Dr. med. Boycott, Antony 'Tony' collected this loach. NOTE 4: »Nemacheiline loaches are typically benthic [*] fishes inhabiting moderate to swift-flowing water bodies and spending most of their life near or under stones or in crevices. This and their usually slender body and feeding habits (predatory on small invertebrates) have preadapted them to colonize hypogean aquatic habitats« (KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE 2007: 35). * benthic, from the classical Greek benthos (depth), means bottom living live, ground-living forms, epibiota.
Documents
Bibliography 28/03/2016Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.4 | NARA (Thloo) | ||
| 0.8 | DIENGIONG, Lumshnong (Krem) | ||
| 0.8 | NARA 3 (Thloo) | ||
| 0.8 | NARA 2 (Thloo) | ||
| 1.0 | SHRIEH, Umlong (Krem) | ||
| 1.0 | NARA 4 (Thloo) | ||
| 1.0 | SHANTY CAVE (aa -) | ||
| 1.1 | Coffee Cave, Thangskai, 2nd (aa -) | ||
| 1.1 | CHARMINAR CAVE |