Shillong, Mar 17 (UNI) A team of Indian and foreign cavers have found four specimens of blind cave fish from Krem Um Ladaw and discovered Lungchung Khur as the country's 10th longest cave during an expedition in East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.

The discoveries were made by 24 cavers during the month-long 2025 Caving in the ‘Abode of the Clouds Expedition’ which took place from February 2 to February 28.

The expedition started off with a week-long pre-expedition that focused on exploration in the Byrong area of Wahlong in East Khasi Hills district and followed by by a three-week duration main expedition from February 10 to 27, focusing on the limestone areas around Jongria village and the eastern flanks of the Muallian Spur below Tangnub village in East Jaintia Hills district.

Twenty-four cavers from India (mostly from Meghalaya), Austria, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom explored and mapped 22,663m of new cave passage in Meghalaya, Brian Daly Kharpran, a renowned Indian caver said.

In the Muallian area, a small team assisted the Meghalaya Fisheries Department in collecting four specimens of the blind cave fish from Krem Um Ladaw cave.

“All (four specimens of the blind cave fish) are now safe and thriving in the care of the Fisheries Department and will help in the preservation of what is currently the world’s largest known species of blind cave fish (Neolissochilus pnar) that is unique to Meghalaya," Brian, a recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2002, said.

The Muallian area in Meghalaya, specifically around the Muallian Spur, is known for its rich cave systems and recent cave expeditions have revealed significant new cave passages and discoveries, including the 10th longest cave in India, Lungchung Khur.

“The most significant discovery was Lungchung Khur which proved to be yet another stunning river cave, typical of the type of cave for which Meghalaya has become well known. With an explored and mapped length of 13,618m Lungchung Khur became India’s 10th longest known cave to date (9th longest Limestone cave),” explained Brian, who had discovered more than 1,700 caves so far in Meghalaya and have put it on the ‘World Cave Map.

Lungchung Khur cave has large river passage up to 30m wide and high in places, huge relic passages over 20m wide by 15m high along with a mixture of inlet passages, beautiful oxbows and boulder chokes, he said.

The cavers also explored four new caves in the Byrong area in East Khasi Hills, where eight caves were explored. The new caves explored are Krem Riblai with 1,973m of passage, Krem Khla with 1,521m of passage, Krem Wallang with 1,393m of passage and Krem Shanguh 1 with 1,027m of passage.

Moreover, smaller caves were explored including Krem Sohrimera at 148m, Krem Khlarit at 57m, Krem Krien at 51m and Krem Shanguh 2 at 40m in length.

“The caves in Byrong were a mixture of seasonal sinks, active resurgences and shafts containing some excellent and well decorated active and relic passages,” Brian said, adding that a total of 6,210m of previously unmapped cave passage was explored and surveyed in the Byrong area.

“Some passages and caves remain unexplored and it is known that there are other unexplored caves in a Byrong so a return will be made at a future date,” he said.

In the Khangban river valley, Brian said, seven caves were explored comprising of Lijung Khur 1 at 251m, Lijung Khur 2-3 at 112m, Lijung Khur 4 at 138m, the resurgence cave of Lijung Khur 5 at 129m in length.

“All of these caves are located within the same gorge section of the Khangban valley. Further downstream Biate Khur was explored for 138m with some side passages remaining,” he said.

In the Litang valley, shaft and sink were explored which included the Canyon Sink, explored via a series a pitches for 938m in length, Lizard Splat for 155m in length, Honeycomb 1 for 49m, Honeycomb 2 for 104m and Honeycomb 3 for 35m in length, Brian said.

“Thirteen previously unknown caves in an area known as Krem Soh Shrieh proved mainly to be blind shafts of between 8m to 26m in depth with the exception being Krem Soh Shrieh 2 that yielded 174m of passage to a depth of 46m. The Um Sngad Sink previously explored in 2007/2008 was extended from 2,086m in length to 2,185,” Brian informed.

Brian said the total combined length of known cave passage that has been explored and mapped in Meghalaya by the caving in the ‘Abode of the Clouds Project’, since systematic cave exploration started in 1992 now stands at 573.6 kms.

“With a good proportion of this being either large and beautiful river passages or large relic passages evidence suggests that in Meghalaya considerably more cave passage awaits exploration in future years,” Brian expressed optimism.

UNI RRK SSP ARN