NAGIREDDYBADDE CAVE (Perrin 2010)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unspecified cave entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation possibly facing west) is characterised by massive fossil [sic! qua: inactive] speleothems and gives not only access to L~ 20 m representing an estimated 20 m of cave passages but also to bats, fossil [sic! qua: relic] cave, meander shape gallery (mean dimension w: 0.5 m, h: 1.7 m); formed mainly under vadose conditions; Narji massive limestone, subhorizontal bedding planes. It seems like the now open canyon was a main underground drainage and the visited cave a remnant of this cave system … [In other words: A comparatively] small tributary on the [orographically] left side of the main drainage gallery (Perrin 2010.02.02 Mss). ETYMOLOGY: No autochthonous, indigenous or locally known cave name has been identified for what has been christened not only New caves (Perrin, J 2010.02.02 Mss) but also Road Cave (Dar, Perrin et al. 2011.02.02 Mss table 1: C-22). SITUATION: At an unidentified disance of a few metres above main road [from] Betamcherla [generally south to] Banganappalle [and] on [Jerome Perrin's personal] the left side [occasionally east] of a small canyon [i.e. Nagireddybadde] followed by the road (Perrin, J 2010.02.02 Mss). CAVE POTENTIAL: Other cave entrances and fossil speleothems along the walls of the canyon are visible elsewhere in the vicinity.Caves and rock shelters occur north-west of the village of Gollagutta (note 1) not only on the eastward flowing nala (streambed, thalweg) of the Muchhatla vagu (note 2) and in the valley of the locally east-south-east trending Gollagutta valley (compare the caves at –>Gollagutta) but also in the picturesque, north-south aligned limestone gorge or small canyon (Perrin 2010.02.02 Mss) along which the road is laid which runs from Betamcherla (N15°27': E78°09') south and south-east to Banganapalle / Banaganpalle (N15°17'30”: E78°14'). ETYMOLOGY: The Telugu -badde- means cliff (or gorge, ravine) but the Gondi-bodu- means crest, ridge. According to Venugopal Rao & Rao (1993 Mss: 2), the cavernous cliffs on either side of the road are locally known as Nagireddy badde (hence Nagireddy Badde caves). SITUATION 1884: … westward of Gorlagootla … One of them [caves] was said to occur in the valley of Gorlagootla stream [note 3], and will probably be found in connection with a very fine group of limestone cliffs standing on the north side of the stream. The other [cave], of which the locality was pointed out to me, is situated in [the Nagireddybadde] a picturesque ravine which one passes on the left hand side when crossing the small ghat which leads from Gorlagootla [Gollagutta] to Betumcherru [Betamcherla] (FOOTE 1884a). SITUATION 1993: The caves north-west of Gorlagutta [Gollagutta] occur along an eastward flowing nala along which the Banaganapalle - Betamcherla road is laid. The cavernous cliffs on either side of the road are locally known as Nagireddi badde (hence Nagireddy Badde caves). … Furher north of the village [of] Gorlagutta along the northern flank of the E-W trending limestone ridge, small unnamed caves have been located. These are also found to be insignificant from [a] palaentological point of view (Venugopal Rao & Rao 1993 Mss: 2). SITUATION 2010: Perrin (2010.02.02 Mss) discovered in a small canyon followed by the road from Betamcherla to Banganappalle the –>New Caves (Perrin 2010.02.02 Mss). POSITION: The karstified gorge or picturesque ravine (FOOTE 1884a) and small canyon (Perrin 2010.02.02 Mss), which features in the open air, is shown between N15°26°: E78°09' to N25°25': E78°10' (Everest 1830) on the Survey of India sheet 57-i/3 (edition1983). Venugopal Rao & Rao (1993 Mss: 10 locality list) position Nagireddybadde at N15°26'00”: E78°09'40” (unspecified geodetic datum probably Everest 1830). DESCRIPTION: The -ghat- (pass, passage) flanked by the Nagireddybadde of Cliffs of the Primeordeal Serpents' Chief is possibly the relic of a senile cave(with all of its ceiling gone) which exposes daylight-lit and phototropic speleothems and flowstone formations Most of these [Nagireddy Badde] caves are [of] smaller dimensions, collapsed at the entrance and not significant from [a] palaeontological point of view, as the sediments inside these caves are rather thin or absent. Dripstone structures [speleothems] are seen at places along the cliffs and surrounding the cave mouths (Venugopal Rao & Rao 1993 Mss: 2). CULTURAL HISTORY - rock art: I wonder if it had been in the Nagireddybadde that Gudrun Corvinus (1972 in KENNEDY 1977: 102 figure 4) had taken the photograph showing Two male figures about a span (20 cm) tall and titled Rock shelter wall painting along Betamcherla - Kurnool road, Kurnool district, South India.