BALLARI: A team of experts involved in tracing early human habitations in the forests of Sandur in Ballari district recently stumbled upon a 200-year-old one-km tunnel of the British era. There are many big and small caves in the forests of Sandur and the team launched its study sometime ago. The team led by Prof Ravi Korishettar, honorary director of Archeological Pre-History Museum, and noted wildlife experts Samad Kottur and Santosh Martin from Ballari discovered the tunnel.
The team is assisted by officials from the forest department. Local forest guards were aware of an opening of a tunnel-like structure, but did not venture into it.
On Sunday, the team managed to cover about 100 metres inside the tunnel. According to the team, as one proceeds, the height of the tunnel decreases and it is close to four feet at some places. There is a large opening at the entrance to the tunnel, which looks like a cave.
“Not much information is available locally on the tunnel, which is atop the Devadari Hills. It’s possible that the tunnel was made during the British regime to explore iron ore. Experts in the mining field may throw more light on it. It is interesting to see the tunnel at 900 metres above the sea level,” a team member said.