KRISHNAMMAKONA CAVE (Gebauer 1996)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 05/04/2016

Two cave entrances (width by height: 2 m by 4.5 m and 2 by 1 m) in north-west facing a cliff give access to an entrance chamber (5 m wide, up to 4 m high and 10 m long) with traces of (archaeological?) excavation. A crawl in the back of the chamber leads to altogether 150 m of predominately low bedding cave passage with some phreatic corrossion avens. Rosario Ruggieri (personal communication) identified light coloured relics of infilling as marine sediments. SITUATION: About 600 m west of Krishnammakona railway station (N15°30'07”: E078°15'02” Everest 1830, Survey of India sheet 57-i/06 edition 1982), and less than 100 m south of the railway line. CAVE CLIMATE: The temperature in the cave air was slightly above 28°C on 14th December 1996. CAVE LIFE: On 14th December 1996 I counted about 200 individuals of what looked like leaf-nosed bats (Chiroptera) and various, unspecified "creepy crawlies" (bat guano dwellers).