Bakhari Bazar - Tharu Tribe Village of West Champaran Bihar in the Grip of Tendua (Leoparad) Scare

Bakhari Bazar - Tharu Tribe Village of West Champaran Bihar in the Grip 

of 

Tendua (Leoparad) Scare

(All the images are subject to IPR)

Bakhari Bazar village - a Tharu Tribe village  on Ramnagar-Gobardhana road  of Ramnagar block of West Champaran Bihar India has been my second home as I have stayed in this village for months together for my PhD during eighties of last century when the village was completely cut off from the outside world. 

Image Taken during Eighties of 20th Century
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

At that time this Tharuhat region was very inhospitable, hostile, harsh & difficult to live in for a newcomer. There was no proper road, there was nor proper bridge on Sinahi river, there was no electricity, there was no health & education facility, there was no transport and above all there was no connectivity - landline or mobile.

A Street of Bakhari Bazar Village in 1999
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

I am  in touch with the tharus of this village even today. So  my emotional connectivity with the tharus brothers continues even almost after three decades though the main purpose of writing thesis on the Tharus of West Champaran fulfilled. So whenever I get any news about the village I feel the same as do the villagers feel. 

Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha on a Bridge on Sinahi River in 2008 Just Before Bakhari Bazar Village on Ramnagar-Gobardhana Road in Ramnagar Block Tharuhat of West Champaran Bihar
Image (C) Dr Ajay Kumar Ojha

The news of a tendua (leopard) entering into Bakhari Bazar village  came on my whatsApp through the prompt effort by Dr Shipra  Swarnim and Dr  Kumar Anubhav. I immediately went through the whole news and got relief to find that there was no causality at all. I am well acquainted with  the streets of the village and find closeness & affinity with the environment of the village. 

Tendua in a street of Western Side of Bakhari Bazar Village

The tendua has entered into the village in the early morning of 2nd November (Wednesday) 2016 and started roaring  on seeing the people. The people of the village got immensely scared and informed about the incident to the forest department. The team of forest department reached the village and trapped the animal with the help of a net. 

Tendua appeared to be week and ill. Villagers informed that it entered into the village in the night of Tuesday itself through Sinahi river way which is a seasonal hilly river. It might have lost its way  in the forest of Balmikinagar Tiger Project and reached in Bakhari Bazar.

I talked on mobile to Navendra Mahto Sub Inspector, a tharu belonging to Bakhari Bazar also in this regard. He informed that a tendua entered into the village but nothing untoward happened.