A Note on Calcified Pollutant Artefacts of Mawmluh Cave, Shillong Plateau, Meghalaya, North East India

ABSTRACT The renowned Mawmluh or, Mawkhyrdop Cave near Sohra, is a strato-type area for the youngest geological stage, the ‘Meghalayan Age’. Passages, chambers, and cave water pools form network of channels that are lined and ornamented by speleothems typical of a limestone cave. Materialistic plastic items, cloth, tin and aluminum kitchen and home appliance pollutants brought by the river Wah Ummulah from the nearby villages including Sohra; litter the cave. These artefacts are brought by monsoonal seasonal floods. Continuous chemical activities have calcified some of these items along certain favorable spots of the cave. A stuck-up cloth item along with its lacing pattern had pristinely been preserved during calcification. These calcified items now form trivial but unique features, recently incorporated, and integrated as part of the cave landscape.