The Buru is a form of aquatic reptile, similar to a monitor lizard, thought by some to live in remote valleys of the Himalayas in northeastern India. The Buru was routinely reported throughout the 1940’s in Jiro Valley, in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India. According to most eyewitness descriptions the Buru looked something like a 20 foot long aquatic version of the Komodo dragon. Witnesses also reported that the Buru emitted a hoarse bellowing call. The first westerner to hear about the Buru was Professor Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf in 1947, one year later, in 1948; London’s Daily Mail dispatched the Buru Expedition to the Himalayas with the hope of returning with physical evidence of the Buru’s existence.

The expedition comprised of such notable members as professional zoologist Charles Stonor and Journalist Ralph Izzard, who later wrote The Hunt for the Buru, published in 1951. The team failed to bring back solid evidence of the Buru’s existence, but did bring back enough testimony of earlier encounters with the Buru to convince cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans that these unidentified monitors my have only recently become extinct, however there are still those that insist the Buru still resides in the more remote corners of the area.

According to the Apatani, a tribal group of about 60,000 people living in the Jiro Valley, when their forefathers migrated to the valley it was primarily marsh land which was populated by the Buru. The Apatani people decided to settle in the valley because of the fertility and good climate, but every now and then would run into the Buru. To prevent any lose of life the Apatani decided to drain the marsh of its water and thus eliminate the Burus. As a result the Buru all but died out but some where though to have gone underground into the springs. The last Buru was said to have been sighted by a young woman who saw it one night while she was collecting water from a spring. The young woman told her father about the Buru who the very next day had the whole village fill the spring in with stones and clay.

There are some researchers who believe that the Buru was a form of giant crocodile, which are often sometimes referred to as Buru among the Apatanis people. However both Bernard Heuvelmans and Roy Mackal regard the Buru as a large Komodo dragon like monitor lizard, to support this theory fossils of such a creature have been found in the Indian subcontinent. Heuvelmans also noted those similar creatures were reported in western India where they seemed to merge into the Iranian traditional dragon or Ahi, which is similar to the Chinese dragon. Author George Eberhart noted rumors of a similar creature in the Tigis Marshes of Iraq, called the Afa, quite possibly the same creature as the Buru and Ahi.

The Evidence
There is currently no physical evidence of the Buru.

The Sightings
No documented sightings of the Buru could be found at this time.

The Stats – (Where applicable)

• Classification: Hybrid / Other
• Size: 20 feet long
• Weight: Unknown
• Diet: Most likely carnivorous
• Location: India
• Movement: Four legged walking
• Environment: Swamp