BEAR CAVE, Yercaud

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Two adjoining lower entrances in addition to a third one higher up, give access to a relatively spacious, dimly lit cave chamber suitable as a bear's den in slidden (gravitationally dislocated) charnockite boulders (note 1). SITUATION: The entrance to Bear Cave lies in in an area without any beers or bears but high up the south-western slopes of the Shevaroy Hills or Shervarayar Malai (note 3), Shervaroyenmullay (note 4), etc. (note 2), which lie 33 km along the road from Salem (note 5) generally NNE to Yercaud (note 6), a hill station off the banana pancake trail (note 7), and some 5 km along the road approximately north-east from Yercaud. APPROACH: At a distance of 5 km along a hard-topped road from the lower / larger lake (note 8) at Yercaud and past the Botanical Garden (note 9), a road junction is reached. The right branch (towards the top of the hill) continues straight ahead for less than 100 m to reach a sharp right-hand bend. Here a private fair-weather road ascends to a cofee estate on the left while the hard-topped main road on the right-hand side climbs to Shevaroy peak (note 10). Following the private road for about 1.5 km, past one hairpin bend to the right, the (locked?) gate of the estate is reached. In January 2002 there was a breach in the fence adjacent to the formal gate and serving as an unofficial tradesman's entrance. Continuing for another half kilometre along the private road -- now flanked by immaculately manicured plants and flowers and past a hairpin bend to the left and through an impressive natural gateway flanked by high rising granite surfaces -- the coffee-state's mansion is gained. The cave entrance lies only 50 m south-east of the mansion. A cave entrance of stooping height (up to 2.5 m wide and 1.7 m high) in gravitationally dislocated boulders leads by via two adjoining cave passages, again of stooping height, to an unexpectedly spacious cave chamber (on average 6 m wide, 7 m high and 15 m long), which is dimly lit by a sot-shaped entrance below the ceiling. Two rift cave passages continue but close down after a few metres. The floor seems to be far too level to be natural but no obvious human traces were visible. A tiny pool of water, rather a puddle some 5 cm deep and without apparent life, was noticed on 23rd January 2002 in the eastern rift. A dug well in front of the cave reached a water table some 5 m down. CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The cave had been advertised in tourist information leaflets and brochures (SOUTHERN RAILWAYS 2001) and Internet websites (note 11) because its former proprietor promoted it as a show cave. He had a path laid to the entrance, the floor levelled and the inclined passages improved with steps. The current (January 2002) owner, however, is much less fond of unexpected visitors and keeps noisy dogs (German shepards) to keep tourists at bay. In January 2002, however, inquisitive visitors were still walked by a fluently Malayalam speaking servant up to the cave's entrnce. A year later, other people reported to have been turned away.ot-shaped entrance below the ceiling. Two rift cave passages continue but close down after a few metres. The floor seems to be far too level to be natural but no obvious human traces were visible. A tiny pool of water, rather a puddle some 5 cm deep and without apparent life, was noticed on 23rd January 2002 in the eastern rift. A dug well in front of the cave reached a water table some 5 m down. CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The cave had been advertised in tourist information leaflets and brochures (SOUTHERN RAILWAYS 2001) and Internet websites (note 11) because its former proprietor promoted it as a show cave. He had a path laid to the entrance, the floor levelled and the inclined passages improved with steps. The current (January 2002) owner, however, is much less fond of unexpected visitors and keeps noisy dogs (German shepards) to keep tourists at bay. In January 2002, however, inquisitive visitors were still walked by a fluently Malayalam speaking servant up to the cave's entrot-shaped entrance below the ceiling. Two rift cave passages continue but close down after a few metres. The floor seems to be far too level to be natural but no obvious human traces were visible. A tiny pool of water, rather a puddle some 5 cm deep and without apparent life, was noticed on 23rd January 2002 in the eastern rift. A dug well in front of the cave reached a water table some 5 m down. CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The cave had been advertised in tourist information leaflets and brochures (SOUTHERN RAILWAYS 2001) and Internet websites (note 11) because its former proprietor promoted it as a show cave. He had a path laid to the entrance, the floor levelled and the inclined passages improved with steps. The current (January 2002) owner, however, is much less fond of unexpected visitors and keeps noisy dogs (German shepards) to keep tourists at bay. In January 2002, however, inquisitive visitors were still walked by a fluently Malayalam speaking servant up to the cave's entrot-shaped entrance below the ceiling. Two rift cave passages continue but close down after a few metres. The floor seems to be far too level to be natural but no obvious human traces were visible. A tiny pool of water, rather a puddle some 5 cm deep and without apparent life, was noticed on 23rd January 2002 in the eastern rift. A dug well in front of the cave reached a water table some 5 m down. CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The cave had been advertised in tourist information leaflets and brochures (SOUTHERN RAILWAYS 2001) and Internet websites (note 11) because its former proprietor promoted it as a show cave. He had a path laid to the entrance, the floor levelled and the inclined passages improved with steps. The current (January 2002) owner, however, is much less fond of unexpected visitors and keeps noisy dogs (German shepards) to keep tourists at bay. In January 2002, however, inquisitive visitors were still walked by a fluently Malayalam speaking servant up to the cave's entrnce. A year later, other people reported to have been turned away.