A 'haunted' village in Bangladesh

No people live in this village of Jhenaidah, Bangladesh for 90 years.

Like ten other villages in the country, there are houses, ponds, fields full of crops. But there are no people here to eat them or stay at home. Anyone will be surprised to hear this. But no, I am not explaining the scenario of a horror movie. Nor is it a foreign island. There is such a village in Bangladesh. Where there has been no human habitation for nearly a hundred years. The name of the village is Mangalpur. This village is located in Elangi Union of Kotchandpur Upazila of Jhenaidah.

The village exists in official records. There is cropland, pond, trees. Just no noise. There is a legend that many years ago, the people of Mangalpur village were filled with fear of 'Amangal'. People left the village in fear. Since then the village has been deserted. There are still fields of various crops including paddy, lentil, sugarcane and fruit orchards all over the village. There are ruins of several settlements. There are also several ponds. Which proves that once upon a time people lived here very well. But why no one lives here. Such questions are surely arising in your mind again and again. Let's know the story behind it-


There are still crop fields, orchards

In this regard, an elderly person of Kotchandpur area, Mosharf Hossain, said that 80 to 90 years ago, cholera disease spread in the form of an epidemic in Mangalpur village. Many people died in it. In panic, others took refuge in nearby villages. Some families left the village out of fear and moved to India.

Amirul Islam of neighboring Balabaria village said that most of the people of Mangalpur village belonged to the Hindu community. Many people died when cholera became epidemic in the village. At that time, a word spread in the village that the water in the canals, ponds and wells of the village had been destroyed. Everyone must die here. After this campaign, the people of the village moved to India in groups. Some people moved to neighboring villages, who later moved elsewhere.

These are many years ago. But long after that, 80-90 years ago, Hazra Tagore and Nipin Tagore were staying here. After they died, the last family member named Neto Thakur lived in Mangalpur, when he was later killed, the village became completely depopulated.

It is known that there was an influential person named Mangal Pathan in this region. The village was later named Mangalpur after him. Mangal Pathan had a huge house on three acres of land. A 30 to 40 inch wide mud wall was raised around the house. Standing on the high bank of the nearby pond, no one could be seen inside the house. His family was very reserved. The girls of the house never went out. He would not even meet any outside man. Mangal Pathan once died there. His grave is still in this village.


The once bustling village has been abandoned for 150 years

No one can say exactly why the once bustling village became so desolate. And time has passed a lot. So no one of this generation even looks into this matter. But the most common reason is that once cholera and smallpox occur here, the people of the village start dying. Most of them were children. Doctors - Kabiraj, Ojha, Osudh-Jharphuk were not working at all. Villagers start believing that this is happening due to some divine power. None of them will survive here. So everyone left the village and fled. Later their successors came and sold their land to the people of the neighboring villages to get rid of the trouble. They are now cultivating these lands. But no one settled.

Elangi UP Chairman Mizanur Rahman said that Elangi union consists of 16 villages. Mangalpur is one of them. Mangalpur is a village on the border of Jhenaidah's Kaliganj, Kotchandpur and Jessore's Chowagacha upazilas. But no people lived in this village. They heard word of mouth that the people of the village left the village in fear of the unknown.

He also said that the people of the present generation had forgotten about the deserted village. Which everyone got to know again through the newspaper. According to the land office of Elangi UP, Mangalpur village is located in Mangalpur mauza number 66. There is only one village in this mouza. There are 206 registered lands in the village. But no family.

Kotchandpur upazila executive officer Asaduzzaman Ripon said that he was not aware of the matter. He said that they will find out why a village has become depopulated.