HIMALAYAN PARADISE HOTEL, Chakrata (Cave above)
30.720100,77.863100
Description
An unexplored and, apparently fabulous cave, which has been said (note 1) to be accessible only with the help of technically aided climbing but actually was merely concluded from the existence of a dislocated stalagmite (a 34 cm high calcite speleothem, 8 cm in diameter) that had been picked up up at the road side and thus had fallen into the hands of the owner of the Himalayan Paradise Hotel (note 2) at Chakrata town (30°42'N: 77°51'E). VEGETATION: Quercus incana, Quercus semicarpifolia (Kotlia 2005.11.08 Mss: Notebook).
NOTE 1: Kotlia (2005.11.08 Mss: Notebook); Breitenbach (2006.03.21 personal communication). NOTE 2: The originally recorded GPS reading »Alt: 1886 m, N30°72'01”: E77°86"31”« (±7 m, Kotlia 2005.11.08: Mss Notebook) is peculiar insofar, as it features more than 60 minutes in a degree and appears to reflect what had been displayed as N30.7201°: E077.8631 (format DD.DDDD°) corresponding to N30°43'12.4”: E077°51'47.2” (format DD°MM'SS.S”). Breitenbach, Sebastian F. M. (2006.11.17 personal correspondence: Dharamjali Höhlenplan) forwards an interesting statement according to which Prof. Bahadur S. Kotlia claimed to have selected with his GPS Garmin Etrex the inexistent geodetic datum "MSS" (sic!) when positioning cave entrances in 2005: »Zu den Koordinaten aller Höhlen, die mit Kotlias GPS gemessen wurden (1. Trip 2005) hab ich rausbekommen das es nicht WGS84 sondern ein MSS (so Kotlia) gewesen sei.«
History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 2005.11.08: Prof. Bahadur S. Kotlia created a tale according to which a certain Bittdo or Bittu (Himalayan Paradise Hotel owner) presented him a stalagmite »fallen from an inaccessible cave into the hotel's garden.« Gyatri Kathayat, then senior student, however explained six years later not only to »remember my tour to hotel Himalayan Paradise« but also recalls how »that sample was found during the metallic [metalled] road construction by the owner of that hotel. That is all I know about that sample« (Kathayat, G 2001.08.22 personal correspondnce with Breitenbach, S).
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.6 | BAYALA (Cave at) | ||
| 2.6 | BHUCHKOTI (Cave at) | ||
| 2.6 | MADAK (Cave at) | ||
| 2.6 | MONUG (Cave at) | ||
| 2.6 | RAJANU KHERA (Cave at) | ||
| 2.6 | SHAKNAI KHERA (Cave at) | ||
| 2.6 | THUDARHI KHERA (Cave at) | ||
| 3.6 | CHAKRATA | ||
| 4.7 | BUNDER CAVE (Price 1988b) |