PENDA CAVE

(Rongara - IN)
25.216700,90.833300
Grottocenter / carte

Description

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 01/05/2016

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!).

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 01/05/2016

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 01/05/2016
  • Directorate of Tourism, Govermnent of Meghalaya 1993 "Enigmatic Caves" calender; Kharpran Daly, Brian D 2006; Marak, Julius L R 2000.

Histoire

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1994.02.20: Simon J. Brooks, Brian Johnson and H. D. Gebauer looked around Penda Cave, found it clogged with lots of stones, hoped for better finds in the area, and left to face more challenging adventures than mapping an epi-cave 12'000 km from home (note 2). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 01/05/2016

Cavités proche

Distance (km)NomLongueur (m)Profondeur (m)
1.7KANAI CAVE
1.7KANAI RESURGENCE
1.7KANAI SINK
1.7BANDINI JALANG, Kanai Nala
1.8PENDA POT 1
1.8PENDA POT 2 (aa -)
1.8PENDA POT 3 (aa -)
3.5ARANG PATAL
3.7Balphakram Vapour Pool