SIDDHA GUFA, Bhimad

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

The main attraction of the cave, which contains four chambers, is the abundance of calcite formations (speleothems) in the 4th room (at 33.5 m and approx. 10 m high) - in particular the thirty odd stalagmites that loom up out of the floor to heights of 2 m.PICKERING (1994a): After several hours of following directions and climbing up into the jungle, we were rewarded with seeing the entrance of another Siddha Gufa. At the entrance the local villagers had built a temple to worship one of their Hindu gods - Mother Pardi - and had erected a small rough plaque indicating that this cave had been known to them since December 1992. … After ducking through the entrance in the thickly forested hillside it was possible to stand up. In the first room we could see evidence of gour pools, all of which were now brown and dry but would have made a beautiful scene in their day. The humidity wasn't very pleasant, but this was soon forgotten as we went farther into the cave. A second room was enteredafter squeezing past a large stalagmite and the floor continued to slope upwards with old gour pools between calcite coated walls. The third room was also well decorated. Towards the back of the room a ramp of flowstone extended upwards at an angle of 60° for 7 m. Great care was taken to climb it to see where it went. Unfortunately it closed down to a crawl and did not continue. The way on was found up another ramp which was steep, slippery and narrow. In the fourth room we found a display of stalactites, a few straws, and curtains which wound their way round and round the ceiling until they reached the floor. As we walked up the slightly sloping floor of the back of the chamber 30 m away, we came across more thin 30 flat-topped stalagmites. The tallest rose 3 m. Some had grown together forming tiers reaching up towards the ceiling. Several of the stalagmites bore a resemblance of monks grouped together in prayer around the tiers ad the atmosphere was of a very holy place. … Unfortunaely no leads were found.