PEDDAGUNDA STREAM CAVE

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 01/05/2016

Not only a pair of active cave entrances on the two ends (upstream, downstream)of the true true tunnel cave but also a relic cave entrance (a ceiling window abandoned by flowing water) give access to an estimated 30 m long linear cave passage (1 m air space) which drains a short stretch of the Peddagunda (stream) below Borra village (–>Borra Cave, –>Nilgalgunta Cave). Judging from the absence of secondary calcite deposits, the tunnel cave is annually flooded, drowned, flushed and pressure cleaned during high waters in rainy season. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1882: »… this band of limestone [see: Borra Cave] … even bars the passage of the Peddagunda river itself by a wall some 20 or 30 yards [18 m or 27 m] wide which is pierced by a cavernous channel having two apertures on the up-side, each 40 feet high [12 m] and one above each other, but not in a straight line. Futher in the hollow is only about three or four feet [0.9 to 1.2 m] above the level of the water. Mr. Turner could by creeping in as far as possible and bending down just see the light coming in at orifice on the down side. There is no particular show of travertine [more likely: secondary calcite deposits] in this swallow hole« (KING, W 1882a: 154), CAVE DESCRIPTION 1907: Upstream of –>Borra Guhalu, the Peddagunda stream meets limestone and in »… one place has cut two channels for itself through a wall of the rock, 20 or 30 metres wide, which bars its passage. These two channles run through the wall one above the other, the upper one having apparently been the outlet before the river wore its way down and made the lower« (FRANCIS, W 1907 edited 1992: 285). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1995: »BORRA-III/IV: Borra-III is another cave below Borra-1 [the tourist entrance to –>Borra Cave]. Local hill stream passes through this cave and comes out from Borra-IV« (PRAKASH P V, RATH A & RAO S K 1995).CULTURAL HISTORY: A remarkable degree of sublime ignorance advertise PRAKASH, RATH & RAO (1995) when admitting to intend archaeological investigation of less than 300 days (or about 7'500 hours) old flucial sediments in this annually pressure cleaned stream cave: »Prehistoric investigations are yet to be carried in these caves.«