The buru is a large, swamp-dwelling animal described by peoples of the eastern Himalayan foothills, in what is now Arunachal Pradesh in north-eastern India. The Apatani of the Ziro valley said their ancestors had killed the last burus when they drained the valley’s marshes, while people in neighboring swamp valleys said burus still lived there in the 1940s. In 1948 the Daily Mail sent the journalist Ralph Izzard and the naturalist Charles Stonor to find one. They failed, but Izzard’s book The Hunt for the Buru (1951) made the animal a classic of cryptozoology.[1][2][3]
| Region | Ziro (Apa Tani) valley and nearby swamp valleys, Arunachal Pradesh, India |
|---|---|
| Type | Reported large aquatic animal, said to be extinct or nearly so |
| Reported length | About 3.5–4 m (11–13 ft), with a long neck and a broad-lobed tail |
| First reported to outsiders | Through anthropologists working in the region in the 1940s |
| Expedition | Ralph Izzard and Charles Stonor, 1948, sponsored by the Daily Mail |
| Book | Ralph Izzard, The Hunt for the Buru (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951) |
| Proposed identities | Crocodile, monitor lizard, giant lungfish |
How the buru became known
The Ziro valley, home of the Apatani people, lies more than 1,500 meters up in the hills of the Lower Subansiri district. It was once a marshy basin that the Apatani drained over generations to create the intensive rice fields for which they are famous. Anthropologists working among the Apatani in the 1940s, including Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf and J. P. Mills, heard stories of large, lizard-like animals that had once lived in the marsh.[2][4]
According to the stories gathered by Charles Stonor, a naturalist and agricultural officer in Assam, the Apatani ancestors had trapped the burus in a few deep pools as the swamp was drained, stoned them to death and filled in the pools. One tale says the last buru was seen by a girl fetching water, after which the villagers filled in the spring with stones.[4]
What the buru was said to look like
The descriptions collected by Stonor and Izzard, summarized by the zoologist Karl Shuker, give an animal about 3.5 to 4 meters long, with:[2]
- a broad head about half a meter long, with a flat-tipped snout and eyes set behind it;
- flattened teeth with one larger, pointed pair in each jaw;
- a neck about a meter long that it could stretch out and pull back;
- a rounded body and a tail about 1.5 meters long, with broad lobes along both edges;
- either short clawed legs or only flaps along the sides, depending on the account;
- dark blue skin blotched with white and a white underside, smooth like the skin of a scaleless fish.
It was said to live almost entirely in water, to stretch its neck out of the water and bellow, not to eat fish, and, according to the people of the Rilo valley, to bury itself in mud during the dry season.[2]
The 1948 expedition
The people of a swamp valley near the Dafla Hills told Stonor that burus still lived there. In 1948 Izzard, as Daily Mail correspondent, joined Stonor on an expedition to the Rilo swamp to find one. They searched the area but saw no animal and found no remains. Izzard nevertheless came away inclined to believe that a large reptile had survived there into recent times.[2][3]
Izzard went on to report on Everest and to take part in the Daily Mail’s search for the Yeti in the 1950s.[1]
What was the buru?
- A crocodile. The Apatani reportedly also used the word “buru” for crocodiles, and the writer Tim Dinsdale suggested a crocodile. The high valleys are cold for crocodiles, but a relict population in the old swamps cannot be ruled out.[2][4]
- A monitor lizard. The biologist Roy Mackal, and Bernard Heuvelmans, favored a large water monitor. Monitors live in the region, but they have scales and do not have a long, retractable neck.[2][4]
- A giant lungfish. Karl Shuker proposed in 1991 that the buru was a large lungfish. Lungfish bury themselves in mud during droughts, have flat tooth plates and lobed fins, have smooth skin over hidden scales, and gulp air noisily at the surface, all features that fit the descriptions. The problem is that no lungfish lives in Asia today.[2]
- Story and memory. The buru was already said to be extinct in the Apatani valley when outsiders heard of it. As with many such stories, details may have grown in the telling.
No new reports have appeared for decades, and the swamps of the region have largely been converted to farmland. The buru is best seen as an unsolved puzzle from the late colonial period rather than an active mystery. For another reported reptile in remote country, see the Mongolian Death Worm.
References
- “Ralph Izzard,” Wikipedia.
- Karl P. N. Shuker, “Riddle of the Buru, and the Lungfish Link,” ShukerNature (2012), from Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007). Blog post.
- Ralph Izzard, The Hunt for the Buru (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951); bibliographic record via Lycanthia Books.
- “Buru,” Cryptozoology Wiki.
Correction note (October 2026): This entry was rewritten. An earlier version linked the buru to the Mishmi people; the reports come from the Apatani of the Ziro valley and neighboring swamp valleys. Unsourced details have been replaced with the descriptions actually recorded. The illustration above is an artistic impression.