PENDA CAVE
25.216700,90.833300
Description
A daylight-lit single chamber cave (up to 6 m wide, 3 m high, 8 m long), apparently the relic of a cave abandoned by flowing water, slopes down along the local dip of strata across loose stones and boulders carrying a few dry (in February 1994) and dusty, apparently deteriorating calcite formations (stalactite and partly phototropic stalagmite speleothems). According to BROOKS & SMART (1995: 50), a crawl leading off from the base of the »left« (upon entering) wall enters a sloping, boulder-filled bedding-plane passage that becomes too low to be penetrated. ETYMOLOGY: Since the Sanskrit "panda" is a (spiritual) guide, the cave name »Penda Cave« might have been intentionally designed to associate the cave with a pious troglodyte hermit or two. Another explanation is to have the "penda" or "pinda" etymologically reflecting a corrupted form of »pendent« due to the daylight-lit and hence obvious »ceiling pendants« (stalactite speleothems), which are visible even to passing tourism promoters. Yet a third suggestion in line with popular etymology considers the presence of red panda bears in the Garo Hills present in the Garo Hills (note 1). SITUATION: Near kilometre 10 a few metres east of the motorable road ascending from the Balpakram National Park headquarters to the »Jawarlahal Neru Heli Pad« viewpoint. CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The National Park authorities try to advertise this not exactly attractive sight-seeing spot as a show cave. The Directorate of Tourism, Government of Meghalaya (1992) produced a 1993 calendar "Enigmatic Caves" showing a photograph (without scale) of the view in. On 20 February 1994 the cave entrance was found to have been "beautified" (read: smeared) with blue paint. CAVE LIFE: MARAK (2000: 57, photograph 24) claims the former presence of bats (Chiroptera) but this seems to be unlikely as there is no dark zone: »There used to be a number of bats [Chiroptera] staying in this cave. Since there used to be hundreds of bats in this cave, this cave is known as Dobakkol or Pinda Cave« (sic!).
NOTE 1: The Garo "matcha pantao" is a »red panda« (M.D. Madhusudan, s.a. circa 2005: Wildlife distribution and hunting, South Garo Hills.- (ruffordsmallgrants.org: Rufford Small Grants Foundation), table 13; online: samrakshan.org (accessed 2008.07.09). NOTE 2: BROOKS & SMART (1995: 50) decided to claim one »Surveyed Length: 13 metres« along with one alleged »Surveyed Depth: 6 metres« as if this item were »Surveyed to: 2a« but his is not the case as perfectly nothing had been measured when visiting the site on 20th February 1994.
Documents
Bibliography 01/05/2016Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.7 | KANAI CAVE | ||
| 1.7 | KANAI RESURGENCE | ||
| 1.7 | KANAI SINK | ||
| 1.7 | BANDINI JALANG, Kanai Nala | ||
| 1.8 | PENDA POT 1 | ||
| 1.8 | PENDA POT 2 (aa -) | ||
| 1.8 | PENDA POT 3 (aa -) | ||
| 3.5 | ARANG PATAL | ||
| 3.7 | Balphakram Vapour Pool |