POWERSTATION CAVE (Western)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

This cave, just like the adjacent Eastern –>Powerstation Cave, is developed exclusively in the coarse conglomerate caprock. The cave represents a subterranean estuary and functions as the resurgence of a seasonal, mostly inaccessible subsurface flow (note 1) from the approximate north (note 2). SITUATION: The cave lies about 600 m in a direct line south-west of the Shangri La Hotel (circa 2 km in a direct SSW of the southern end of the Pokhara airport area) and above the hydro-electric power-station (Hydel works), which is reached by a road off to the left / south (at about halfway along Siddharta Highway between the airport and Patale Chhango) along the channel (from the dam of Phewa Lake) supplying the power station. The road and channel ends at the edge of the Pokhara terrace from where a pair of stockpens (big pressure pipes) flank a flight of steps down to the valley floor of the river Phusre. The cave itself, a about 15 vertical metres below the local surface of the Pokhara terrce, opens at the base of a cliff at a spot about 30 m east of the penstock pipes, about 100 m west of (before reaching) the Eastern –>Powerstation Cave. WASTI & ACHARYA (2011: 333 table 1 site no. 8) have one or the other Powerstation Cave Pokhara - 17; Seti dam … Located near the water tunnel Seti Khola hydropower station 20 minute far from Birauta of Pokhara important for bat study POSITION: An interesting GPS position (unspecified precision, unidentified geodetic datum, unspecified values), which has been recorded for one or the other Powerstation Cave Pokhara - 17; Seti dam reads (WASTI & ACHARYA 2011: 333 table 1 site no. 8). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1980, February 1980 (H.D. Gebauer): Near the western end of a daylight-lit rock shelter (approximately 25 m wide and 10 m high) continues a 5 m high gallery which soon enters a roundish chamber (10 to 15 m wide) with a seasonal, shallow pool of water. continueA sizeable cave entrance (in spring 1980 in the conglomerate terrace leads to a wll rounded chamber. The main passage, being 6 to 8 m wide and up to 5 m high, swings by, surrrounds a pile of pebbles and becomes smaller while connecting a series of smaller chambers along its way. Having at last become a very low crawlway, the main passage appears to head for Eastern –>Powerstation Cave. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1997: … the main entrance … was between 15.2 and 19.2 m below the cliff top and had a nearly circular cross-section for about 5 m of the passage. The passage appeared to have greater height inside [read: it was not entered], the width and height varied and followed a complex and curved course afterwards (GAUTAM et al. 2000: 100-101).ll rounded chamber. The main passage, being 6 to 8 m wide and up to 5 m high, swings by, surrrounds a pile of pebbles and becomes smaller while connecting a series of smaller chambers along its way. Having at last become a very low crawlway, the main passage appears to head for Eastern –>Powerstation Cave. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1997: … the main entrance … was between 15.2 and 19.2 m below the cliff top and had a nearly circular cross-section for about 5 m of the passage. The passage appeared to have greater height inside [read: it was not entered], the width and height varied and followed a complex and curved course afterwards (GAUTAM et al. 2000: 100-101).