Asia’s longest cave destroyed by mining

SHILLONG, MAR 2: Asia’s longest cave Nongkhlieh along with another famed cave Krem Liat Prah, which is again India’s longest cave at 30.9 kms located at Jaintia hills district are on the verge of being destroyed by the rampant and unscientific rat-hole mining for coal and limestone.

The dangers posed to these two caves were discovered by 30- members caving expedition team organized by Meghalaya Adventure Association (MAA) recently. The expedition which started from February 3 to 27 was participated by cavers from England, Netherland, Finland, Scotland, New Zealand, Romania and others.

“Rampant unscientific coal mining has destroyed the wealth of the cave systems in Nongkhlieh area including the longest and deepest Lait-Prah Krem,” MAA president Bryan Daly Kharpran said.

Kharpran said that the cavers and the MAA are saddened by the irresponsible mining carried out by coal miners from the region destroying the longest caves in Asia, India and also Krem Rubon in the area.

Further the caving expert informed that mining activities has taken place right at the entrance of Lait-Prah as well as from the upper part of the cave destroying the cave.

Meghalaya has the largest concentration of caves in the subcontinent. About a thousand caves were discovered in the past decade and most of these are yet to be explored and mapped.

Kharpran said though Meghalaya has a reserve of about 4000 million tones of limestone, it does not mean that there should be reckless exploitation of this mineral endangering heritage sites such as the world famous limestone caves, which need to be protected at all costs.

Kharpran further informed that the MAA had earlier submitted several memorandums to the state government demanding that cave in Nongkhlieh, which is the longest in Asia, needs to be protected, preserved and conserved.

However, the state government has failed to take up necessary measure to protect these caves from further exploitation.

Apart from Krem Lait-Prah, Kharpran said that caves found in Narpuh Elaka including Kotsati-Umlawan cave and others have lost their glory because of rampant mining of limestone around their surroundings by cement companies.

“We seriously don’t want the same fate to be met by other caves in the region. We need to preserve them for our future generation,” Kharphran added.

Kharpran complaint that the MAA had also pressurized the government to immediately implement the  Meghalaya Mines and Mineral Policy, but the government has failed to do so till now.  “The state government has completely washed its hands off from the responsibility of protecting the important caves and environment as a whole,” he rued.

The 30 member caving team also visited areas like Lakadong, Bataw, Borkhat and Kharkhana to study and explore the caves in this region.

Of the 1350 caves identified in Meghalaya, over 850 have been discovered, explored and mapped with more than 387 kilometers passages been surveyed – an achievement giving Meghalaya its prestigious place in the ‘caves-map’ of the world.

Kharpran had earlier written his third book on caves entitled– “Caves for the Uninitiated” which talks about the longest and deepest caves found in the state.- By Our Reporter