Shillong, March 04: The longest cave system in the Indian subcontinent has been discovered in Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills district by an international team of speleologists.

The team found a cave system over 22.20 km long, which surpasses the previous known record of 21.55 km of another system existing in the same district.

''The linking of the Krem um imLiat Prah cave system to Krem labbit (Khaidong) to create a single cave system of 22,202.65 m in length is the longest cave known to date in the Indian sub-continent,'' the team members told a press conference yesterday.

The team comprising 17 members from the UK, two each from Switzerland and Denmark, one each from Austria and Ireland and five from India spent three and half weeks in the district focusing on the cave areas of Shnongrim Ridge near Nongkhlieh area.

This finding surpassed the previous record of the longest cave system in the sub-continent the Kotsati Umlawam measuring 21.55 km, said BD Kharpran Dally, a reputed speleologist in Meghalaya, Between February 7 to March 1 the team explored 39 caves, mapped and photographed to discover 15,498 metres of new cave passage.

Of the 39 caves mapped 36 were entirely new with only three being cave systems that were partially explored in previous years, he said.

Terence M Whitaker, a research biologist from the UK and a team member, said Jaintia Hills district has the highest concentration of caves in the sub-continent.

Exploration of these would reveal new species of aqua animals.

The speleologists said till date the whereabouts of over 1,060 caves were known, of which 629 were explored to yield in excess of 295 km of surveyed cave passage.

Much of the caves found in the Jaintia Hills district have impressive river cave mixed with huge fossil passage that created these cave systems comparable in size and beauty to any other found elsewhere in the world putting Meghalaya firmly on the world-cave map, they said.

However, the large-scale limestone mining in the vicinity of the caves by private parties for setting up cement plants was a matter of grave concern, they said.

"We have represented to the Union Forest and Environment Ministry, the state govt and other authorities drawing their attention to the destruction of the precious caves in the area due to limestone mining.

But there is no result as yet," Dally, winner of the Tenzing Norgay Memorial Adventure award given by the Centre, said.

Whitaker said the team was shocked to see the devastation of the caves by limestone mining in Meghalaya.

The govt should be made to understand the importance of precious caves in the district, they added.

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