Bhunte is growing up and soon he will be a bull, staying away from his family. Surprisingly, he is still the same. Playful and mischievous. After playing with his sister, he ran towards the sandy bank of the Rapti. He thought of sliding down, rather than walking, after all, he is Bhunte! “Yooohooo!” he trumpeted as he slid to the bank. And there he met Babuwa, a very shy male gharial. When Babuwa saw Bhunte sliding towards him, he quickly turned around to go into the river. “Babuwa!, stop, I want to talk to you!” Bhunte trumpeted. Sighing and rolling his eyes, Babuwa was annoyed “What is it!”. “No nothing, I am just curious, last time I saw you- a year back- you had no that thing on your nose! What is that?”. Babuwa focused his eyes on his ‘ghara’ and explained “Well, Bhunte, I am a grown-up gharial now! Last time, I met Phoolkumari and tried to impress her with a sound through this ghara. Interestingly, she and her friends don’t have ghara! Well, she was not interested in me or in my ghara, but I was proud that I could make a different sound and blow bubbles! You want to watch?” Bhunte nodded in agreement and followed Babuwa as he stealthily plunged into the water and blew the bubbles. Bhunte laughed, and said “You need ghara to blow bubbles!? I can do that with my trunk! Easy peasy!” Bhunte plunged his trunk into the water and blew it up! A happily relaxing pair of Common mergansers frowned at Bhunte for disturbing them and flew off! Babuwa quickly grabbed this chance to hide himself deep in the water! Bhunte trumpeted and started sneaking into the river. Bhunte’s mother trumpeted from the bank “Bhunte, come back, we are leaving and stop bothering Babuwa!” Bhunte tidied up his trunk and legs, and rushed towards his herd.

Sadly, no one realized the fate of Babuwa and his family! With less than a hundred left in Nepal – their food being (gharials feed on fishes) exploited by humans (over-fishing!), their habitat being destroyed by sand mining, and they being killed by the gill nets and their eggs being stolen! Babuwa may perish! Bhunte wishes that let Babuwa and his next generations flourish in the sandy banks of India and Nepal.

*Good news: Bhunte, his stories and art will be soon protected by the Copyright Act.

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