Work and Adventure in Bagaha

#Part2 #BagahaStory – The #Sequel 

Work and Adventure

Work and Adventure

Adventurous Times spent in the Diaras and the Jungles along the Narayani

As promised earlier, I am now ready to narrate further some more stories from my tenure as SP, Bagaha. As the series would continue further with your esteemed feedback, readers still unfamiliar with the plot, terrain and topography of Bagaha, where I enjoyed some of the most adventurous times of my life as a young Superintendent of Police, are advised to read my earlier blog at http://copinbihar.blogspot.in/2016/12/the-december-of-2006.html. I had then mentioned that the stories from the initial days in Bagaha would soon be continued. In fact upon being forced by repeated requests from various anxious readers to narrate the complete story, I had to send a link containing a complete brief of the happenings during my stint in Bagaha which was available at http://copinbihar.blogspot.in/2016/08/a-story-written-in-december-2012-from.html. But for now, as the stories would sequentially continue, I would be regularly sharing some of my adventurous experiences in the pristine jungles and wild diaras of Bagaha. Here I am recollecting some out of many adventurous tales which were experienced between December, 2006 and June, 2007.

Incredible Bagaha !

To start with, I must make the reader recollect that Bagaha is still home to one of the best surviving forests in northern India, and here one is sure to encounter a diversity of wildlife seldom seen elsewhere. But, these beautiful forests of Bihar were hardly popular as a tourist destination in the days when rickety roads coupled with the activities of ‘dasyu’ (meaning dacoit) criminal gangs and Maoists made the rare chance visitor tremble with fear. Anyone visiting then and moving without any police escort or local knowledge must have surely felt that one was more likely to encounter dreaded creatures hailing from the dasyu gangs also often called as ‘Jungle parties’, which engaged themselves in kidnapping victims for ransom, rather than those seemingly innocent and beautiful ones living in the wild in their own natural territory. And the fear was certainly not without reason in the jungles believed to have always been inhabited by dasyus, who sharing a common space with the wild residents had been a part of the feared ecosystem since as old as the immemorial times of the dasyu turned into the great sage Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, believed to be hailing from the same jungles.

In the Forest near Ganauli

Dense as they still were, the jungles had also since around the late nineties additionally been infested with Maoists, who in the new race for dominance in the forest areas often struggled with the regularly inhabiting dasyus and posed a severe threat to regular police movement, as they occasionally and in a planned manner had been attacking the police or forest personnel and installations using guerilla tactics. The Maoist presence in the jungles added a new dimension to the challenges before the police, who happened to be the most frequent visitors being compulsed by duties to continuously chase the ever changing hideouts of the dasyus and often in search of kidnapped victims. The Police in those days had to make very careful and tactical moves inside the forests, being always on a high alert, since in the absence of regular tourists, any vehicular movement within the jungles could well be deemed as being made by the police who were the exclusive tourists of the jungles. Also, under ever-growing influence of the Maoists, these dense jungles always teeming with wildlife were now gradually becoming less inhabited by criminals, for whom the major hub had now increasingly shifted to the vast diara lying across the Gandak. The Gandak is traditionally called as the ‘Narayani’ on account of it being the seat of the Puranic legend of the fight between the pious Elephant and the crocodile, which originating at its banks near Valmikinagar finally ended at Sonpur, near Patna, with the rescue of the elephant by the Lord Narayan Vishnu himself.

Life in the Diaras of the Narayani

I have earlier described at length the peculiar topography of the police district where the Gandak (Narayani) seemed to divide the district into two distinct parts. While north of the river contained Hills and dense forests, the southern part with several meandering streams along with the main river encompassed vast stretches of sands called ‘diaras’. In these vast diaras which were characterized by growing tall grasses and sturdy shrubs amidst sandy stretches and mud pools, there were large cultivable lands with small huts where lived farmers thriving upon sugarcane along with other crops and cattle wealth. The permanent residents of the diara happened to be often very peculiar since most of them had almost never received any sort of education in their lives, which quite carefree revolved only around the moods of the river and their daily chores, the nature of which changed cyclically with the seasons.

The Narayani at Valmikinagar

Even as the inhabiting faces kept changing with time along with the ever changing courses of the river and the cyclical climatic changes, the basic characteristics of life in the diara seemed to persist timelessly without any typical change. Such was the virtual isolation from modern learning that hardly any grown up man I encountered in the diara could ever recall the date on which he was born, or even the date or year of the present day. A man whose name I still recall as one Uma Yadav appeared to be in his late fifties, but upon being asked about his age smiled innocently and shyly answered that he must have crossed thirty or forty since his son had also been married recently. Also, almost isolated from electricity, Television and other modern communication till as late as 2006, all he seemed to be concerned was about his daily chores, buffaloes and survival in a land infested with the gangs who would regularly bring in guests from outside (read kidnapping!) and ask him for favours like food etc. and shelter, which could not be denied in the circumstances due to the possible threat that they posed. The Police for him must have been like an occasional visitor who at times came on seemingly tourist like trips in the area and threatened him to not shelter or support the gangs.

All diara residents had been similarly used to this for years. In some villages where the criminals would have had just left, they would run away the moment they saw the police approaching fearing that the police may catch hold of some of them in order to inquire about the whereabouts of the gang members, who later would seek revenge had the police even inadvertently proceeded in the right direction despite having been effort-fully misguided by the poor informant. I felt it the most at one Nainaha village, which was used like a virtual permanent camp by the daysu gangs being located almost in the centre of the vast and inaccessible diara. The village was located at a distance of only about 10 kms from Ratwal village approachable by metaled road, but was reached only after the vehicles drove through a river channel and into the vast sandy expanses which had either sugarcane or tall grasses and other shrubs growing profusely upon them. During my visit to Nainaha just 2 or 3 days after the major police raid of the diara, all the villagers on seeing the police approaching in vehicles, simply ran away from their homes leaving behind them unattended burning stoves and their other properties. They largely distrusted the police which always threatened them with dire circumstances for being shelterers of the dasyus, and often detained them for questioning about the latest activities of the dasyus. I then often had wondered about their peculiar fear of the police and support for the gangs which led to such deemed pitiful existence of theirs, but soon understood that their peculiar behavior was shaped so since they knew that the police would soon leave their territory, while the gangs were there to stay and could not be afforded to be antagonized.

Soon after the first major police raid of the diara, a makeshift Police camp had already been set up in a remote diara settlement known as ‘Bauk Baitha ka Ghotha’, the name of which symbolised the hutment of a person named as ‘Bauk Baitha’ i.e. ‘dumb or foolish Baitha’, who may have lived there sometime in the remote past and about whom no one presently seemed to have any idea. The particular camp was set up especially to oversee the sugarcane planted in the lands under illegal occupation of the dasyu gangs and further in order to prevent their being harvested by the gang members and to organize their proper harvesting under police supervision for deposition of the proceeds thereof into the Government treasury.

Police Station Visits were also Adventurous !

After the first major raid of the diara, my next target was to complete a visit to all the police stations, 17 in number along with their outposts and located in distant and different parts of the region. Visiting some of the Police stations was an adventure in itself. To reach one particular Gobrahiya PS, one had to cross not less than 45 streams meandering in between the Himalayan foothills if one was proceeding from Bagaha or Valmikinagar side. The police vehicles would cross the river with the waters still fully flowing based upon chosen routes at places  where the river sand was supposed to be firm enough to allow fordability, and which were marked by earlier ‘tyre marks’ of vehicles which had crossed earlier.  These routes along the streams kept on changing as they were regularly washed out after every heavy rain and also during flash floods which could arrive any moment due to rains in the upper mountains, even as no sign of rain could be seen in the vicinity. The streams took at least one full day to become fordable again after a good rain and in the circumstance of one getting stuck in this part of the district during rain, there was no other way but to pray to the rain god which we soon realized as I would subsequently narrate about the times when once travelling on an inspection trip, I had to camp for three consecutive nights at Gobrahiya rest house dependent only upon the frugal provisions which could be procured from the small village as it rained continuously for about 2 days.

Another set of 4 Police stations was located on the other side of the river from Bagaha, which could either be reached by crossing via boats and thereafter walking for miles or by travelling via the sole bridge at Paniyahwa which connected Bagaha to areas of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh where too the roads though ‘pucca’ and recently carpeted had some basic fault in engineering and gave a very bumpy ride even at moderate speed. In any case, it took no less than three hours to reach Piprasi or Dhanha PS, while reaching Thakraha by road used to consume four hours and often made one feel as if on a visit to some god forbidden territory which had not seen the light of development or even electricity due to its being physically located in an almost inaccessible part of Bihar, even as it was connected to a well-developed marketplace in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. The need of a bridge which could connect Bagaha with the other side near Dhanha was very much felt, and later I was happy to learn that the project was soon taken up by the Government after I had left the district and that its existence today is a reality. Valuable for the economy and connectivity greatly, the only damage that the construction of the bridge may have caused would have been to the fragile ecosystem in the diaras through which it must have passed. These diaras near Nainaha and Ratwal were the most pristine ones and contained a huge biodiversity. Crocodiles and Aligators could be spotted in large numbers along with freshwater river dolphins which made the otherwise calm surroundings very lively with a lot of them always erupting from different locations in the river.

Times spent with Visitors, Informers and Friends

As I roamed around the district in the initial days, there was no routine which could be followed and as it often depended on the circumstances encountered enroute and the distance away from the headquarters, the days were quite tiring and often I could return only by late night or even in the very next morning in case of a night stay out. I was soon getting used to the schedule and so were the large number of visitors who upon my assurance that I could be contacted at any time if available in the headquarters, used to gather near my residence and wait till late, often even camping there for the night under the special waiting sheds, if I happened to stay out. I made it a point to meet all visitors at the first possible opportunity, be it any hour of the day and thus the SP Residence was almost being used like a police station with a constant flurry of new visitors. Visitors used to come to meet from long distances and if they did not find me available, they preferred to spend the night waiting in Bagaha rather than going back to their villages since travelling was not easy both due to bad roads as well as due to fear of the dasyus. In the initial days, I was staying alone as my wife could join me only towards the end of December, 2006 and soon left thereafter.

The Camp behind SP, Residence, Bagaha

Of the constant flurry of visitors reaching round the clock at the residence, while many met in the confidential office chamber, there were some others who did not want to meet in the open for the fear of being identified. There was an atmosphere of suspicion all around as many even in the police department were not above doubt and could have been supplying information to the gangs about people meeting the SP as well as about the surprise movements of the forces. Such confidential visitors were met behind the residence on the river banks either in the early morning or late at nights. They generally would either call on the mobile phone or send message through someone and a secret meeting would soon be organized.

With Satishji near Valmikinagar

It was in these days that I befriended Satishji, a veteran forest lover and still a bachelor hailing from Bagaha, who had spent much of his life exploring the forests of Valmikinagar. He became a regular visitor at the camp office in the evenings and narrated stories of earlier police officers and their adventures in the district. He had earlier probably also been a good hunter, but with the change of forest laws had now become a narrator of the adventure stories which could no longer be practiced or witnessed in the present. He was well known to most officers who had served in Bagaha and shared a good camaraderie with all and this I could feel immediately after joining the district on the very first day when he had arranged dinner for the camping Divisional Commissioner and the senior Police officers. In this first dinner I had in Bagaha, he had arranged for special local prawns and fishes which had been well fried with spices and make a good snack that went well during the talks in the evening. He soon became a regular visitor at the SP residence and also accompanied me during some trips to the remote forests and diaras in search of criminals, when his presence served as an additional source guiding me about the characteristics of places being visited and of species being encountered in the wild.

An Ambush near Ratwal – Getting closer to the dasyus !

As I met many people all these days, I could make several informers many of whom appeared quite promising as they shared details about the whereabouts of criminals in the diara and the jungles. I was slowly getting more and more acquainted with the pattern of crime in the district when I was approached by a gentleman from Ratwal who earlier had been introduced to me by my senior as a trustworthy contact person. Quite popular in his village Ratwal, he had cultivable ancestral lands which fell in the diaras of the Gandak. Being located closely to the hideouts of the diara gangs, his family was always under threat and surveillance, and had learnt to live the hard way. They had their own spies all along the diara and used to guard their place of residence in Ratwal round the clock with armed sentries who made use of the licensed weapons issued by the district administration. This gentleman who soon became a friend had a very mysterious way of talking and always appeared very confident with an innocent smile. During our second meeting, which took place at my camp office around mid-December, he informed me about the presence of criminals in the diara near Ratwal and that they could be trapped if they took shelter some day within the village. He explained that the dasyus at times took shelter in the village at certain times in the night only to return back to the diara by the early morning which with its tall grasses and other camouflage was considered naturally safe by them.

Just around 2 days after the second meeting, I received a call from him in the evening that one particular gang had been spotted as having entered a nearby settlement in the afternoon and had not left and could be planning to camp there for the night. He suggested that if ambushes were laid on the riverside, they could be trapped on the way back towards the river in the early morning as was their regular modus. As I had earlier discussed the methods of organizing such a surprise raid, I saw it very promising and immediately organized for a joint police team consisting of platoons from the CRPF and STF along with the local police to form into 4 different groups which were seated separately on 4 different tractors to enter Ratwal. Tractors were specially chosen as the medium of transport since their sound was unlikely to raise alarm being often used for transport of sugarcane by the villagers in the night hours. It was quite a dark night as we left Bagaha for Ratwal. At Ratwal we met our trusted source, who had along with him 3 more persons to guide the assembled police teams in different directions for laying ambushes on the riverside. After quietly disembarking from the vehicles, the teams started moving on foot for about a kilometer to the ambush points. It was a dark and cold night of December and most villagers were thus indoors while some dogs could be heard barking as the forces moved through the vegetation near the village and into the wild diara.

By about 1 am, the four teams were in place as was being coordinated upon wireless sets. It was planned to carefully keep a watch over the suspicious movements towards the river while the police teams hid themselves behind the tall grasses and bushes growing on the river side. At my point where I was camping with a team of the district police personnel, the river could not be seen due to the dense grasses which had empty sandy spaces between them, but could well be felt as being located nearby from the sounds of aquatic birds who often seemed to be wading through into the waters for some unknown reason even in the night along with the peculiar sounds they made.  As we settled down and the night hours crossed, I really wondered about the probable risk of someone contracting a snake bite from within the dense grasses where so many humans had ventured to stay for long into a territory known to be inhabited usually by snakes.

While I was wondering, none of the reptiles turned up probably due to the cold night and as some time passed I heard some murmurs from nearby. I was informed by one of the constables about the crossing of a herd of wild boars at a short distance from us and thus asked everyone to be alert as these boars could be really life threatening and powerful on the level ground where they often attacked their enemies head on with immense momentum while their tusks tore deep into the flesh. As another hour passed with everyone being careful and wary of the wild boars, they seemed to have moved far and nothing but hares and birds could be vaguely seen or felt in the vicinity as the moon light allowed more clear view. The December night was a cold one and we had adopted the trick used by the dasyu gangs of covering overhead with polythene sheets, to save ourselves from the effects of the dew that was increasing every hour with the advancing night. As the morning came closer, the birds which were being heard through the night became clearly visible and gradually moved into the river waters. The intended enemy was still not at sight while some farmers could now be noticed moving in their fields to light fires around which they sat to warm up themselves for the activities of the day.

It was thus decided to call off the long wait, which now seemed to have been futile as the dasyu gang would probably not leave the village so late and since the surprise behind the grassy growths could not be maintained for long as more and more people woke up for their daily activities in the diara. Even though, the long wait in the cold winter night did not result into an actual encounter with the gang, the sheer movement of forces in the early winter morning from the tall grasses of the diara had its own impact. I could notice the surprise and awe in the eyes of the villagers as they noticed the moving forces since they had seldom expected the police to be laying ambush on such a cold night for the dasyus. The news of the long ambush must have spread like wildfire in the district creating further panic among the dasyu gangs of the diara and the jungles.

As the forces returned towards the district headquarters, I stopped over for tea at Ratwal where the gentleman had an old house which had among its old collections a precious tiger bust. As we sat around burning logs to shed the cold of the night in the old seating room, his old uncle proudly proclaimed that his father had once shot the poor creature in the forests of Valmikinagar and had got the skin tanned at Kolkata in the early 1950’s, when hunting of tigers was still legally allowed. He narrated the stories about how the gangs of the diara and the jungles had shifted their modus operandi sometime in the early 1980’s from dacoities to kidnappings. Kidnappings were practiced by the gangs as a low risk and high profit exercise, utilizing the cover provided by the peculiar terrain of the district.  He also narrated how his family had been opposing the gangs of the area all along, while several other leading families had actually either befriended one of the gangs or had struck compromise with another in order to survive. They however had been opposing the gangs as a matter of principle and thus had been on the target since long. Further, due to their opposing the gangs in such territory, they had always assisted the campaigns of the police and thus had been known to a generation of police officers who got a chance to serve in the district. On the way back, I discussed about the idea in my mind of setting up a police camp in adjoining Nainaha, and the Ratwal family assured to assist in every way in secure setting up of the same.

A Memorable Stay in Ganauli

After several raids and ambushes in the diara, it was now time to deeply explore the forested parts of the police district. The visit to Valmikinagar PS for the second time was quite adventurous. I remember that it was a cold day when I decided to reach Valmikinagar via Ganauli forest road since earlier I had visited it through the main road which was highly damaged and I was exploring another options. I stopped at the Forest Rest House to click a few photographs and also inquired about Kamaljit from the Indian Forest Service, who was then undergoing practical training as a probationer. Kamaljit seemed to have been on tour and since mobile phones did not work in the areas near Valmikinagar, I dropped in a message for him on the forest wireless. As I reached Valmikinagar using the forest road for about 10 to 12 kms from Ganauli, I could see the evening setting in and it was getting dark when I reached the Police station. I still remember that it was cold when I dropped out of the vehicle to reach the Police station verandah where two well sized logs had been put together and a small fire was seen oozing out from the contact cavity. As I reached near the logs I could realize that the logs had been probably burning for several days and emitted enough heat which comforted one seated nearby.

Ganauli Forest Rest House

As I sat and talked to the police station staff about the jurisdiction, it being my second visit, I saw someone from the forest department arrive with a message and learnt that Kamaljit was waiting for me at the Kotraha rest house.  After some time I left for Kotraha which was about 5 kms from the PS and met Kamaljit, who by then had already arranged for some snacks and tea and he welcomed me to sit near the old fireplace which had been sufficiently lighted up on the cold day. As we chatted for about two hours, dinner was served, but our conversations about the forest and wildlife did not seem to end. Thus after dinner, he proposed me to accompany him to the Ganauli range office where he was then putting up and I happily agreed as there wasn’t much to do in Bagaha on the return after a bone shaky drive of more than 3 hours. As we reached the Ganauli range office, another log fire was waiting for us below a guava tree, which was so welcoming that we sat beside it chatting for maybe more than three hours after which I decided to sleep for the night in the guest house itself. This night was one of my most memorable nights in Bagaha as I still remember the dew drops falling from the guava tree leaves as we talked on a variety of topics including accounts of the forests in British times and stories of Jim Corbett and others. As I planning to retire for the night, Kamaljit informed me about the presence of a British era wooden watch tower which had probably since never been repaired and was located in the near vicinity of the Manor river, at about 7 kms distance from Ganauli. We planned a visit to it for the next morning.

The British Era Watch Tower

The next morning as I got up lazily around 8 a.m., it was still foggy and the Sun had still not taken full charge of the cold day. After breakfast at the range office we left for the watch tower. As we got down from the vehicles near Manor river, I could see Kamaljit getting very excited. He had spotted tiger pug marks just where we got down and showed them to me. He also briefed me about the specialities of different pug marks and how one could even distinguish a female from a male tiger. As we started climbing the hill for reaching the watch tower, it could be seen that the track of the past had been damaged by the growth of wild vegetation. After some height, vestiges of the tower could be seen. We could hear sounds of several animals on the way and also noticed the marks left by wild boars and other species on the ground. The fresh claw marks of a tiger could be seen on a tree as we reached the watch tower which had been left unrepaired for long. Promising as the view from the tower would have been, I decided to use some of my climbing skills to reach the top with some effort. I climbed every step very cautiously since the dilapidated wood which was quite mossy and slippery as well could not be fully trusted. But at last I reached the top and had a lovely view of the hilly ranges and the meandering river cutting sandy stretches between the dense forests. The fog around impeded a clear view of the distant ranges but nevertheless added to the overall charm of the view as I could see butterflies wading upon the bushy undergrowth nearby. I bid farewell to Kamaljit as I had to soon leave for Patna where I needed to officially hand over some documents along with the charge of my previous tenure.

Viewing the Forests from Ganauli Watchtower

Time for farewell from Patna

On the 22^nd December, I left for Patna where I handed over charge of City SP, Patna to the DSP, Town, on the next day (23^rd December). At the time of leaving Patna, I could not even hand over routine charge since I had to compulsorily move totally suddenly in the wee hours of the cold night of the 1^st/2^nd December as mentioned earlier, and now was the time to get a proper farewell from the place which had served as a home for about a year. After having several rounds of formal and informal farewell parties in Patna, finally, on 26^th December, I left the Historic City SP Patna Residence, famous for once having been home of Sir Charles D’Oyly, for Muzaffarpur along with my wife who was then in the family way and in the very first month of the trimester, after having breakfast in order to board the Saptakranti Express which started at 12 noon. After a comfortable train journey, we reached Bagaha at about 3.30 p.m, where reaching home after a kilometre’s drive from the Railway Station, I introduced my wife to the new residence and also informed her about the impending visit of the IG and DIG on the next day as they were slated for a visit to the forests of Valmikinagar.

The real beginning of the Forest Adventures

After several trips to the diaras and a wonderful and memorable round of the jungle with Kamaljit, my actual detailed visits to the dense jungles started after 27^th of December, 2006, when the IG, highly interested in forest adventures and spotting wildlife, visited from Muzaffarpur, accompanied by the DIG from Bettiah. I received the duo who had arrived along with their families at Bagaha Railway station, and escorted them to my residence for tea and snacks. Since my wife had just arrived the previous day from Patna and was not in the best of health, she could not accompany us to the jungles in the afternoon as we left. She, however, wanted me to return from Valmikinagar by the night, and to join the senior officers on the next morning for the jungle safari, hardly realizing what the journey from Bagaha to Valmikinagar on the bone-shaking roads ever meant. Having reached from Muzaffarpur by train, she still had to encounter the degree of bad roads that this part of Bihar had to offer in those days.

Crossing Streams deep in the Forest was a routine

The IG had been to Valmikinagar several times earlier as well and seemed quite familiar with the jungle terrain. The journey to Valmikinagar was a very interesting and motivating one as they talked about having spotted tigers during the earlier visit and also shared stories about jungle adventures of IPS officers in the past. On this particular day, I got introduced to a new device called ‘spot light’ which was told to be of great use in spotting movements of criminals alongside the roads and also for wildlife which was the motive behind its design. It consisted of a light bulb fixed to a holder with connecting wires which could be connected to the battery of the vehicle and could be held by someone to shed light on the dark surroundings as the vehicle moved. This light could spot just anything including wildlife or even humans at a distance on the roadside, since the eyes of most forest animals normally radiate a greenish yellowish tinge on being spotted with light amidst the dark background, while carnivores are generally distinguished by a yellowish reddish tinge. I got introduced to the typical signages used to communicate between the driver and the spotlight holder standing behind on an open roof vehicle.

Panchnad Nala

On the way to Valmikinagar, we all had adjusted ourselves in an open gypsy where Satishji accompanying us decided to act as the spotter while the senior IG decided to drive in order to introduce me to the art of moving safely in the forest areas in the night. With other vehicles moving behind us, the low noise emitting gypsy created minimal disturbance in the surrounds where one was supposed to remain silent to not disturb animals likely to be spotted since they ran away struck with panic the moment they heard any human voice. Returning back to the signage lessons, I should mention that the light was to be shown on the bonnet of vehicle to indicate to the driver that he needed to stop as something had been spotted in the vicinity. Thereafter the directions of the light advancing were supposed to indicate the direction in which the vehicle should proceed. It was interesting to learn these tricks as animals in the wild were indeed spotted on the road sides as the gypsy moved along to Valmikinagar in the evening. Without such a facility, one could only see animals which were on the road or crossed the road and became visible in the head light of the vehicle. Best of all, the spot light seemed really useful for the police in the dasyu infested police district as the dasyus could not afford to hide in the bushes during police movement with these special lights in the night. Another caution I learnt that night was that one should never take the name of a rabbit or hare if spotted as it reduced the probability of spotting more animals for some unknown funny reason as believed by hunters in the past. It was usually addressed as ‘Manhuswa (One that brought bad fortune)’ or ‘Lambhkarna (One with large ears)’.

A Shaky Camera inside the Forest near Ganauli

The evening passed off well as we reached Valmikinagar guest house where we had a relaxed dinner amid interesting chats about forest life and adventures. After the dinner, I requested to bid departure to Bagaha to see my wife who was waiting having asked me to return back in the night. Seldom did she realise what returning in the slightly foggy night on the haphazard roads passing through the jungles could  have meant, but I wanted to keep my promise as she had just arrived in a totally new house on just the previous day. As we returned in the night, we rushed back without the facility of the spotlight that we had on the onward journey. It was a lonely and quiet return till Madanpur, about 10 kms before Bagaha, and I was feeling sleepy when I was suddenly attracted by the whisper of one of my bodyguards named Nasrullah. A leopard was being seen just in front of the vehicle quietly walking by the roadside as we were passing through a settlement near Madanpur forest rest house. The Leopard may have been looking for some easy prey near the human settlement and was walking unchallenged on the road late at night as it was already around 1.30 a.m., and the villagers well slept inside their houses in the cold and foggy winter night. I reached home at around 2 am and got up early in the morning to reach Valmikinagar to join the seniors for breakfast at about 9 a.m.

The day was a cold one with shades of sunlight appearing as we entered the forest near Jatashankar temple at about 10.30 a.m. to reach Panchnad Nala only after crossing not less than 40 streams using vehicles in the same manner as described above. Though looking around in the hope of spotting tigers in the wild, none could be spotted that day despite roaming around for kilometres inside the jungles and the highlights of the day included two groups of spotted deer and wild boar apart from some birds. After dinner at the Valmikinagar rest house we again roamed around in the night around the barrage and airstrip where a lot of hares could be seen along with birds in the open grounds with tall grasses. Several herds of deer and nilgais were seen close to the road as we moved upto Kotraha from where I left for Bagaha as the senior officers retreated for the night. I was not so lucky on this night as the previous one, but nevertheless did see some more deer in the woods near Valmikinagar road railway station as I reached Bagaha and entered into the quilt to spend the hours before the morning. The next morning breakfast was planned at the Sugar Mill guest house at Bagaha as the officers had to depart early by train for their headquarters. As I left them at the Railway Station, I was feeling very happy to have been posted in Bagaha, where I could freely explore the jungles and natural beauty of the diaras in pursuit of the dreaded criminals which was my main task. It was a place which doubled Work with Adventure and at the young age that I had been posted I was sure to make the most of it.

Settling down in Bagaha

As my wife settled down, it was time for the new year eve, when Satishji visited me and we quietly celebrated the arrival of the new year at the residence. The next morning I decided to visit the outpost recently set up at ‘Bauk Baitha ka Gotha’. I crossed the river carrying my gypsy and another jeep on boats as we stood gazing at the flow of the river waters. As I thought about the risks involved in such travelling for someone who did not know swimming or did not have life jackets in case the boat capsized due to overload, I was informed that such boats safely carried bullock carts laden with sugarcane from the diara to the mainland and also tractors and their trollies separately which were used to transport goods to and from the diara. I also learnt that some of the boats operating in the remote diaras were operated by the henchmen of the dasyus who levied a fee over usage of such mode of transport. As the boats reached the other side, the vehicles were downloaded and we started on to reach the Ghotha, where the cup of tea made in pure unadulterated milk of the desi cow reared in the neighbourhood along with the peda (sweetmeat) that was offered by the camping constables still remains in memory.

Relaxed moment at SP, Residence

I had thoroughly started enjoying my work in Bagaha. As I moved around remote places in the district at sudden surprise timings and even camped with the forces at night, it was creating a definite fear in the gangs who were not used to such policing. My wife left for Patna again after a fortnight since she had to undergo routine medical check-ups in the first trimester of pregnancy, and since such facilities were then not available in Bagaha in the absence of even a trained gynaecologist. By mid-January, 2007, I was again staying alone in the Bagaha residence and had full time for adventure and roaming around in the wild. Every day was like a living adventure with a great sense of service as the sugarcane seizure campaign continued till early March.

A Forced Three Night Camp in the ‘Don’

I was always looking for different ways to move around the district and had by the beginning of February created a basic kit with sleeping bags and other basic requirements like emergency lights etc. which could enable camping even in the open. I was more prepared for outdoor camps and tried camping at different locations in the district regularly to make the police impact felt. At times I would use the train to go to Ramnagar from Bagaha and would return by vehicles. The movements always had a surprise element and I would seldom use the same route on the return journey. A new Landmine-proof vehicle had arrived in the district in February and I wanted to test its effectiveness in the jungles and undulating hills of Bagaha, where the Maoist threat loomed large. After surrender of a group of Maoists towards the end of January, which is part of the next chapter of stories from Bagaha, I wanted to visit more families of the Maoist cadres in order to convince them to persuade their relatives to surrender and join the mainstream taking advantage of the rehabilitation package offered by the Government. On one of the days, I planned to supervise a case in Goverdhana PS near Ramnagar and further to try using the Landmine-proof vehicle to reach and inspect Gobrahiya PS using the forest road from Ramnagar. I started for Ramnagar in the evening and planned the visit to Gobrahiya for the next morning after a visit to Goverdhana and to return back to Bagaha by the night. After supervising the case near Goverdhana, I started on a long journey which took about 4 hours from Ramnagar to reach Gobrahiya PS. The DSP of Ramnagar along with the Officer-in-charges of Ramnagar, Cheutaha, Semra and Goverdhana Police Stations also accompanied me for the trip to Gobrahiya since I was travelling by a new medium which was a cause of quite excitement.

The Landmine Proof Vehicle

Such a vehicle had earlier never been seen by the villagers residing in the ‘Don’ area, so named due to its being a valley between two hill ranges of which one was on the Indian side whereas the other lay in Nepal. It was about 4 p.m. when I reached Gobrahiya Forest House, where after a cup of tea and refreshments I decided to go and inspect the Police Station. At this point of time I noticed several villagers assembled near the main portico of the Guest House who wanted to meet me. They complained about the behavior and deemed atrocities of the local Officer-in-charge who would reportedly often threaten the villagers and extort money under the threat of possible arrest. A few cases were narrated before me as I left for Gobrahiya PS and started with the inspection. As the inspection continued, I noticed that the O/c had been very negligent and irresponsible in his conduct and was not seemingly befitting the post he was holding. I ordered his suspension immediately and noticed no remorse or guilt in his eyes even as the other officers accompanying me watched on. Just about this time, when the atmosphere had become tense due to the punishment meted out for his irresponsible conduct with me being angry and internally pained, a severe storm started flipping the doors and window panes of the old police station building as papers flew into the air. People started rushing helter skelter to close the window panes and unhappy with the sudden results of the inspection, I left the Police Station immediately to reach the Forest Rest House from where I intended to start upon the return journey via Harnatar or Valmikinagar to Bagaha as the vehicle had been tested and found to be quite effective even in the undulating terrain during our trial in the day.

Struggle after the Rains

But destiny had surely planned it otherwise since it started raining heavily immediately and continued almost non-stop after the storm. Around 8 p.m., as we waited for the rains to end, it was decided to make arrangements for dinner of the about 30 persons accompanying me. But, with a suspended Officer-in-charge who would have usually been assigned such responsibilities, and a bad weather, the whole team was almost left to fend for itself in the small village which also contained the threat of being attacked by the Maoists from the neighbourhood. Complicating things further, Mobile phones did not function in the Don area in those days due to absence of mobile towers and the wireless set of the Police Station was thus the only way to communicate with the district headquarters at intervals of every two hours. As we tried to send a communication about our whereabouts to the district headquarters, it was found that the only wireless antenna which was fixed above the Police Station building had been blown off by the storm and could be repaired only after technical staff would arrive from the district headquarters and which was not possible before the weather got clear. The wireless fixed in our different vehicles could communicate with each other but not with the district headquarters due to their short range and the intervening hills.

As the search for provisions began in the village amidst the continuous rain, two teams of 2 officer-in-charges each went in two directions communicating with each other on wireless. One of the teams managed to procure some rice, pulses and spices from the only shop in the village after locating its owner who had gone home to sleep and was fully inebriated when he was requested to open the shop for purchases. The other managed to procure about 6 desi chickens as deemed sufficient for the whole group. As the teams returned back to the rest house, a 3-sentried guard had been mounted to respond to any Maoist attack, and a large fire had been lit up in the main courtyard in front of the two rooms it had. In the absence of the main cook of the guest house who had left for his village seldom expecting visitors to stay there in the night, the police personnel got a chance to utilize their cooking talent which finally resulted in producing dinner at 2 am in the night. With the rains still continuing and threat of Maoist attack not overruled, all stayed awake till first light and sat chatting around the fireplace.

Deep inside the Forest

I slept for some time before I was woken up due to the sounds of men moving around as the rains stopped. Efforts were made to procure more provisions for the preparation of a breakfast-cum-lunch as one team was sent to check the level of waters in the river Masan so as to estimate when it would become fordable by vehicles after receding of flash floods due to continuous rain. By the time lunch was ready it was already 2 p.m, and the team from the river returned with the news that it was simply not possible to cross the river as the water level was still quite high to even drown tractors in places. We were thus forced to wait for another night as the drizzling started and continued till the whole evening. Rains had stopped by the night when we followed the same routine of the previous day and spent time chatting about the adventures different officers had been through in their policing careers. It was delightful to learn the experiences of officers who seldom had the time to recollect their past as turbulent police life went on. Here forced to camp at Gobrahiya by mother nature and its circumstances, one had a lot of time which could be spent well only by chatting as it rained outside.

As the rains were not as heavy as the previous day and had fully stopped by midnight, a team was despatched to check the river conditions in the next early morning. The team soon returned and informed that the river waters had receded and it was now possible to plan the return journey. Everyone looked restless as it had been 2 consecutive nights in the same place without much provisions and none could even change clothes having come fully unprepared for the stay. After an early brunch of ‘khichdi (boiled rice, pulses and vegetables with salt) we set out on the journey towards Harnatar hoping to cross over the Masan and the hills and thus reach the district headquarters at Bagaha. The unmetalled roads had become soft after the rains but nevertheless allowed the movement of police vehicles, all of which had been equipped with four wheel drives. Just about 3 kms after we left the forest rest house, there seemed to have been some problem when one of the wheels of the Landmine-proof vehicle in which I was seated got stuck in a channel made for irrigation of the fields near a culvert which capsized under the enormous weight of the vehicle designed to be a monster to take on the impact of landmines.

The driver tried all his skills to get the wheel out of the channel, but all efforts seemed to be in vain as the wheel sunk further. Some villagers working in the nearby fields gathered by then and started watching the police making efforts for getting the heavy vehicle out. As more time passed, several ideas originated in different minds and were tried, but, none seemed to work in the wet fields. Villagers by then assembled about 3 tractors from the vicinity and joining them to each other and the Landmine-proof vehicle by chains made an effort to pull it out. As the power seemed less, more tractors were roped in to pull out the vehicle. After a lot of human effort and a combined pull of 7 tractors joined together with chains, the stuck wheel finally came out and the vehicle was now ready to move. By this time it was clear that there was no point trying to move ahead in the same vehicle as there was every likelihood of facing the same problem in more places since such channels were present across most agricultural fields through which the road passed.

The Forests of Champaran

The best solution was to drive the vehicle back in the reverse gear to the Forest Rest house and to then park it at the Police Station to be moved again on some other day when the roads would be firm and dry enough after the rains ended. The same was done and by the time we returned back to the rest house, it was already 5 p.m. as drizzling had again started. Fearing more rains and sudden flash floods, we could not move out on even the third consecutive night which followed more or less the same routine with everyone only more tired and restless.  The next morning, we left for Valmikinagar on vehicles leaving behind the Landmine-proof vehicle at the Police Station, from where it could finally be brought back to Bagaha only after a month or so. As I reached Valmikinagar, I noticed an ASI moving on a motorcycle and learnt that he was searching for us in the jungles as the DIG at Bettiah was very worried and concerned about our whereabouts. We had no communication with the outside world for all these three nights and returning to Valmikinagar where we could see proper markets seemed like a return back to civilization. After reaching Bagaha in the day, I called up the DIG and informed him about what had surpassed in the three preceding nights and he was awestruck having been worried all the time as 1 SP, 1 DSP and 4 O/c’s of the district had been missing and out of reach of communication for so long. The district had remained peaceful all these days and very soon I funnily experienced that the district always remained peaceful whenever I camped out.

As times passed…

With such adventures and more coming as a routine, times passed on well in Bagaha with me busy in the campaign against the Dasyu gangs of the diaras and the Maoists of the Forests. I moved out more and more in inaccessible reaches of the district and talked to people generating confidence during the interactions. I had developed a network of good informers and public following by March. After Holi, the weather changed as summers approached and allowed for more clear visibility in the jungles. The surrender campaign gained momentum as criminals started surrendering possibly taking a cue from the Maoists from March onwards. The sugarcane seizure campaign and continued raids started making their effect on the minds of criminals as a positive atmosphere was generated due to sustained counselling of the family members of the outlaws. The surrender campaign and the adventures that went along side are part of another detailed chapter and thus I would end this chapter on the ‘Bagaha Adventures’ with the account of another very adventurous night spent by the river under forced circumstances towards the end of June, 2007.

The Night Spent in the River

Around February, I had discovered that the police department had a good motorboat which due to some technical lacuna was lying unused and neglected in a corner of the town. I tried to get it repaired in March and was finally successful when it started working towards the end of May. But even as it became usable towards the end of May, 2007, the low level of waters in the river made navigation for long distances difficult. Coupled with the problem posed by the river sands, it used to consume a lot of fuel amounting to not less than 20 litres of Petrol per hour as it moved. One would have needed to carry extra fuel depending upon the number of hours that one intended to float. I was waiting for the onset of the rains and planned to move into the most inaccessible regions of the diara in rainly times when instead of walking for miles, travelling by the newly repaired motorboat would have been the better option, was what I supposed. By the month of June, the monsoons had already arrived and more waters were now available in the Gandak making it more navigable than earlier when the motorboat blades often used to get stuck in the weeds or sands which could not be seen from above the waters in the vast riverbed.

Getting ready for the River

With the above objective in mind, I started trial runs of the boat to move around in the river for 2 to 3 hours occasionally as the rains set in June. Encouraged by the results in a week, I started working on a longer patrolling plan. I started mapping villages which lay either on the river or one of its streams to find out the viability of reaching them by boat. On one fine Saturday afternoon, I finally felt like implementing the plan to reach the end of the district river boundary and its diaras by boat. Although I had visited most of the diaras on foot by then in Bagaha, I wanted to try the new way of reaching them through the river after alighting the motorboat which by then was tied to a newly constructed shed on the river banks just behind my residence. I wanted to complete the trip in 3 to 4 hours so as to return back by the night being confident that the headlights of the boat along with the spot lights would make it a comfortable ride back home.

Pashupati with Mahtoji on the Boat near Bagaha

As it was quite an adventurous plan being thought of and had not been tried earlier by the police, I called up Satishji to accompany me and he immediately agreed to join in the intended river journey. I asked my driver Pashupati Singh to prepare for the ride and got readied 4 armed and 2 unarmed men along for taking care of unforeseen situations on the way which would be passing through the hideouts of the dasyu gangs. After a lot of preparation, we finally started from Bagaha at about 4.30 pm with about 40 litres of fuel in the tank which consumed 20 litres per hour. About 20 litres extra fuel was taken in another container which was deemed as sufficient for the return journey since Ratwal was hardly 15 kilometres by the riverside we calculated.

It was a good start as we soon crossed the ghat behind the Bagaha Police Station at a distance of about 6 kms. The river had swelled up after the rains, and with a lot of water there was no problem in driving the boat. We were going downstream and were supported by the flow of the Gandak, when upon foreseeing some trouble in returning by the night due to the swollen waters, Satishji advised that we should get back as the sun was about to set and as after sunset there could be problems which he still didn’t clearly define. But I got support from my driver Pashupati who seldom worried about any unforeseen problems and always beamed with confidence as we moved through in Bagaha. The more the trouble in the way, the more interesting and adventurous it became was the maxim we generally adopted while moving carefree in the remote patches of the district. So, we decided to go further in the river journey, no longer worrying about it getting darker.

The Ship of the Narayani !

As we moved further, we realized that the fuel was about to finish and going further upstream would simply be impossible. Since we were near Ratwal at that time, we decided to camp at Ratwal for sometime and to procure more fuel for the return journey. I called up my friend from Ratwal on phone and informed him about our plans, as he started towards Ratwal Ghat to receive us. Sheomuni Prasad, the District STF in-charge was also called to assemble with force and 60 litres of fuel at Ratwal Ghat. From the river we took the route along a small canal for about 5 kms to reach Ratwal Ghat. This canal usually had very less water in other seasons, but had enough water to probably drown a human at this time making it perhaps quite comfortable for our boat to tread through. We reached Ratwal House from the canal at about 6.30 pm sitting in the police jeep from the Ghat. This approximately was the time that a road journey then would have taken to reach the same destination. Encouraged by the results of the boat adventure so far, we chatted over snacks and tea as more fuel was being procured for the boat. It had been quite nice so far, and at this point of time we still didn’t know what had awaited us ahead for the night.

About 60 more litres of fuel was collected as we moved towards Ratwal ghat at about 8.30 p.m. after having a heavy snack to take care of hunger by the time we would reach Bagaha. The officer-in-charge of Bagaha was also asked to keep ready fuel not less than 40 litres for emergencies in case the fuel would get exhausted before we reached Bagaha. As we boarded the boat back at Ratwal ghat, the weather looked seemingly clear and we were in quite high spirits hoping for a comfortable ride back to Bagaha. It was going to be about 5 kms back to the river via the canal from Ratwal. From there it was going to be a smooth ride I had felt but the optimism was to receive a jolt soon. Only after about 10 minutes as we left Ratwal ghat and entered the canal, the motor boat got stuck at an unsuspected location where we had sailed well just about 3 hours ago. The boat was equipped with a long rope which now became handy as Mahtoji, a hardworking Homeguard jawan belonging to the Tharu tribe from the hilly areas of the district jumped out from the boat onto the grassy canal bank and pulled it out with some effort.

But the sailing was not going to be smooth thereafter as the boat got stuck almost after every 2 to 3 hundred metres on the way to the river which was just 5 kms away and which had not taken more than 20 or 25 minutes during our evening journey. The waters in the canal had probably receded during the time we spent collecting fuel in Ratwal, and as I learnt these water levels were ever fluctuating depending upon the discharge from the barrage at Valmikinagar, where the river entered into India from the Nepalese side. But even as the jolty boat ride in the stream was introducing us to newer complications at every small interval, the spot light and headlight of the boat which was supposed to guide us well in the dark started attracting different species of insects from all over the neighbouring diara. Rains had accentuated the insect population in the region which was seldom felt while travelling in the day time when the insects lay hidden in the grasses. But at this hour the experience was traumatic with them swarming the boat lights in thousands being attracted by the sudden lights in the otherwise dark surrounds.

The terrible insect ordeal could end only after about four hours of an ever interrupting ride which was scaled to completion with much of physical human effort being put into amidst the insects biting all over. Around midnight, we finally succeeded in entering the main river from the Ratwal stream. At this point as we left the stream we seemed to have disturbed several alligators who not less than 10 to 15 in number suddenly jumped with a typical sound into the waters from their resting places in the grasses. One of them with a long open snout (in which one could have tried to count the number of teeth in the spotlight) continued swimming parallel to our boat for almost 200 metres when it suddenly disappeared below and into the waters. As we started the boat towards Bagaha, it was realized that much fuel had been exhausted in the effort to cross the stream and that reaching Bagaha was not possible without adequate replenishment on the way. About 20 litres of fuel was left with us in addition to whatever may have remained in the fuel tank. The river there had spread itself for almost a kilometer after the rains and from our position in the boat, its banks could not be seen by either the headlight or spot light when we tried to figure out whether we were proceeding in the right direction. As it became post-midnight, the boat seemed to be proceeding directionless in the dark trying to move against the flow which seemed to be quite fast bringing with it large weeds and portions of trees uprooted by the floodwaters.

Soon it was realized that there was no point in trying to reach Bagaha in that way by the night and that we needed to park the boat somewhere on the banks and then further wait for sunlight to render the waters navigable. Thus, turning the boat towards the bank, we reached a place which looked quite clear and sandy with the grasses growing upon not very high amidst open patches. As we anchored the boat and disembarked upon the banks, we started chatting about the circumstances since the evening which had finally forced us to camp there in the open for the night. Our spirits had still not dimmed down and some seemed to be fully enjoying the adventurous night when suddenly it started raining and we realized that there was nowhere to hide in the open diara which had no trees or shed for kilometres apart. The rains spelt further trauma as we were not carrying any umbrellas or even polythene sheets since such untimely rain had simply not been expected given the weather conditions of the time when we had left Bagaha.

But destiny had it surely planned for us in that way as it rained and rained continuously for not less than 2 hours, when it finally stopped leaving everyone fully drenched and swollen with water marking the insect bites more prominently. As I took off my shirt in order to fold and remove excess water, I noticed that Satishji was staring at his newly purchased mobile phone, a Nokia N70 model, then quite expensive and costing about 27,000 rupees. He had placed the set in the space below the windscreen of the boat to protect it from the rains seldom realizing that the cavity had an inward tilt designed to prevent objects placed from falling away. As the rains continued, rainwater got collected in the space and submerged the new phone set from all sides to damage it possibly beyond repair. I had protected my phone all along the two hours trying to shield it in some way by acting as an umbrella for it and happily it was still on when I decided to see the time which was now about 3.30 am. 

As the day became clear, we started towards Bagaha on the boat with all being tired and exhausted after the traumatic happenings of the night. At that point our camping location was not very clear since we had just reached the nearest bank with much effort in the dark night, when the boat had seemed to be moving directionless for some time in the main river. As we moved, I could see beautiful black partridges all along on the banks, a sight which I had always loved to watch, but, which on this occasion did not excite as I was then wanting to just reach back home. After some travelling we came across a farmer walking on the banks, from whom we learnt that our boat instead of moving upstream in the night had actually gone downstream by not less than 10 kms. While we were trying to move towards Bagaha in the dark night, we were actually led in the opposite direction. It was a wise decision to camp on the banks otherwise we may have travelled furthermore downstream.

As not much fuel was left in the boat, we parked it in a diara which was approachable from Ratwal and leaving the driver Pashupati along with Mahtoji behind to take care of the boat we started on foot towards Ratwal. After walking for a kilometer, a bullock cart was met with and tired as we were after the exhaustion of the night, we decided to board it upto Ratwal ghat. At Ratwal ghat, the Police Station Jeep had already arrived and it dropped me at my residence at about 11 am, where after having breakfast I slept till 4 p.m. I was woken up by repeated phone calls and due to a large number of people waiting outside the residence to meet. As I wound up the official activities of the day, it was past 8 p.m. and as the boat had yet not arrived, I ventured out onto the banks and waited for its arrival just behind my residence. After some time the headlight was visible at a distance, and the boat finally reached Bagaha by about 11 p.m., with a tired driver and Mahtoji, who together narrated the story of how they had managed to get the boat back with the help of local boatmen after being replenished with fuel at three places.

Work and Adventure continued…

Undeterred still, the adventures at Bagaha continued on and on with every day conveying some new possibility. I received several visitors and friends during these days as moving with them made the jouneys and adventures even more exciting. My younger brother stayed with me for about a fortnight in June/July after the memorable night we spent in the river and we could spot a tiger near Ganauli during a trip along with other wildlife. The diara of Nainaha soon became my favourite adventure destination where I would just drive down at any hour of the day or night. Almost all who visited me were definitely taken there for a pleasure trip. Apart from travelling all around, I could also at times find some gap for fishing and bird watching apart from observing daily sunsets on the Narayani. I would be writing more on the adventures in the next chapter when I would also be recollecting the stories behind some surrenders and kidnappings during my initial tenure.

The Jungles near Valmikinagar

To be continued…..

(Next chapter planned on the different Dasyu gangs and their surrenders)