Hidden Earth 2023

Caving in the Abode of the Clouds, Meghalaya 2020 to 2023

60 minute Lecture|Simon Brooks

Abstract

The Caving in the abode of the Clouds Project has been active in the small, cave-rich state of Meghalaya in North East India for over 30yrs. Each year, apart from 2021, multi-national teams have joined with our Indian counterparts to explore many fine caves being a mixture of large river systems, huge relic passages and many fine shafts. The significance of Meghalaya as a caving region has been emphasised by the discover of the worlds longest cave in a sandstone type rock and the worlds largest cave fish.

In 2020 the exploration team mapped 15.8kms of new passage, in 2022 a further 13.4kms were added to this and in the most recent visit in Feb 2023 a small team added another 6.6kms, taking the total length of mapped cave passage in Meghalaya to 537kms.

This lectures cover the exploration activities from 2020 to Feb 2023, introduces you to 'Lucy' the expeditions latest assistant, reveals some of the stunning cave passage and shaft that the expedition teams have had the privilege to explore and looks at how the cave resource in the state is being used to bring benefits to the local communities.