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Question 6 of 7 · Earth: Structure, Rocks & Landforms
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The Borra Caves, one of the deepest limestone caves in India, are situated in the:

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Answer: Option D — Ananthagiri Hills, Andhra Pradesh

Detailed Solution

The Borra Caves are located in the Ananthagiri Hills of the Eastern Ghats, in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district (formerly part of Visakhapatnam district) of Andhra Pradesh, about 90 km from Visakhapatnam.

About the Borra Caves:

  • They are natural limestone caves formed over millions of years by the action of the Gosthani river and water flowing through limestone rock.
  • They are at a height of about 705 metres above sea level and extend to a depth of about 80 metres, making them among the deepest caves in India.
  • They were discovered (for modern science) in 1807 by William King George of the Geological Survey of India.
  • The name "Borra" means "hole" or "hollow" in the local language (Odia/Telugu "bora").
  • They are famous for stalactites (hanging down from the roof) and stalagmites (rising from the floor), formed by deposits of calcium carbonate from dripping water.
  • The rock formations have been given names based on their shapes, such as a Shiva linga, a mother and child, a crocodile and a human brain.
  • Local tribal people worship a stalactite formation as a Shiva linga; a small temple is inside the cave.
  • Archaeologists found stone tools here, showing that people lived in the caves in the Stone Age (Middle Palaeolithic).
  • The Visakhapatnam-Kirandul railway line passes above the caves, and Borra Guhalu is a station on the line.
  • The nearby Araku Valley is a popular hill station, famous for coffee grown by tribal farmers.

Other caves of India:

  • Belum Caves (Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh): the second-longest natural cave system in the Indian subcontinent and the longest in the plains.
  • Krem Liat Prah (Meghalaya): the longest known natural cave in India.
  • Mawsmai Cave (Meghalaya): a popular limestone cave near Cherrapunji.
  • Gupteshwar Cave (Odisha) and Kotumsar Cave (Chhattisgarh, in Kanger Valley National Park).

Why not the other options?

  • ✗The Khasi Hills of Meghalaya have the Mawsmai and Krem Liat Prah caves.
  • ✗The Nilgiri Hills are in Tamil Nadu and are not known for these caves.
  • ✗The Satpura Range has the Pachmarhi rock shelters.

Quick tip

Remember: Borra Caves = Ananthagiri Hills, Andhra Pradesh (limestone; about 80 m deep; Gosthani river; discovered 1807); Belum Caves = Kurnool, AP; Krem Liat Prah = longest cave in India (Meghalaya).

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This question tests your understanding of Earth: Structure, Rocks & Landforms, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.

This topic covers the interior of the Earth (crust, mantle and core), types of rocks, plate tectonics and continental drift, earthquakes and volcanoes, and the landforms created by rivers, glaciers, wind and waves. Questions frequently ask about the layers of the Earth and their discontinuities, the three types of rocks (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic), the Pacific 'Ring of Fire', and which agent forms which landform, such as river meanders and oxbow lakes or glacial cirques and moraines. Alfred Wegener proposed the continental drift theory in 1912. Practise the Earth's structure and landforms questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.

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