The north eastern state of Meghalaya is home to few of the longest cave passages in the country. It is seen that a large number of caves in Meghalaya are located in the low mountainous regions of the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia Hills districts. Studies have revealed that out of the ten longest and deepest caves in India, the first nine are in Meghalaya.

History of Caves in Meghalaya
Before Indian Independence, the British Empire ruling over the north eastern states had an extensive interest in caving. They treated it as an adventure sport and continued to form more caves in the state of Meghalaya. In the year 1844, a British explorer named Lt. Yule discovered Krem Mawmluh, which became the first cave to be explored. This was a major achievement and the news was covered by the Bengal Gazette.

And eventually, from 1990s onwards, an exclusive organisation named the Meghalaya Adventurers Association (MAA) has been carrying out annual explorations in association with European speleologists, cavers from India, experts from other regions of the world, the Indian Army and the Indian Navy. The Siju Cave in Garo Hills was studied in 1922 when 1,200 m was explored and four species of cave life forms were identified. Since the establishment of MAA in 1994, the explored caves account for only about 5 percent of the total underground passages in the state of Meghalaya.

Number of Caves in Meghalaya
Recent reports from the year 2015 have revealed that the state of Meghalaya has about 1,580 caves, out which only 980 have been fully or properly explored. The longest cave in Meghalaya and also in the country is the Krem Liat Prah in the Jaintia Hills, which is listed among the longest caves in the world. Mentioned below is a list of the 20 longest caves in Meghalaya:

Caves of Meghalaya	Length	Location
Krem Liat Prah	30,957 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Kotsati- Umlawan Cave System	21,530 m	Lumshong Village, Jaintia Hills
Krem Tyngheng Diengjem	21,250 m	Jaintia Hills
Synrang- Pamiang	18,181 m	Chiehruphi Village, Jaintia Hills
Krem Chympe	12,434 m	Khaddum Village to Sielkan, Jaintia Hills
Krem Shrieh Tangnub	8,862 m	Tangnub Village, Jaintia Hills
Krem Tyngheng	8,671 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Mawmluh	7,194 m	Khasi Hills
Krem Lymput Nongjri	6,641 m	Nongjri Village, Khasi Hills
Krem Rongdangngai Mondil Kol	5,831 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Shyrong	5,715 m	Jaintia Hills
Tetengkil Balwakol	5,681 m	Nengkhong Village, Garo Hills
Krem Umsynrang	5,612 m	Jaintia Hills
Siju Cave	4,722 m	Siju Village, Garo Hills
Krem Risang	4,565 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Synrang Ngap	4,172 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Synrag Labbit	3,933 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Wah Ryngo- Khongrang	3,416 m	Jaintia Hills
Krem Lawe	3,398 m	Shnongrim- Tangnub Ridge, Jaintia Hills
Krem Mawshun	3,339 m	Khasi Hills

Conservation of Caves of Meghalaya
The prime component that was used to construct the caves of Meghalaya was limestone but currently, an upsurge in limestone mining for the cement industry has become a major threat to these caves of Meghalaya. Under the guidance of the ecologists and speleologists, the Government of Meghalaya took measures to stop limestone mining in the vicinity of the limestone caves in the state.