We crossed the river in four subgroups on the same boat. There I briefed rigourous details about the major combing operation to all the men again. Various constables who were seemingly quite familiar with the terrain probably looked at me with a sense of amazement, but listened to all the instructions very patiently. I told them as to how we had to maintain a distance of 5 meters between individuals and thus cover the whole diara while walking forward. But as we begun the operation, it did not take us even 200 meters of distance to realize that a combing operation of the diara was just impossible. 

As we crossed the sandy stretch along the river, our first encounter was with a dense field of rahri (local pulse variety). Never had I imagined how difficult walking through such a field could be. The bushes were more than 8 to 10 ft in height and also had thorny undergrowths in between. Many a times one had to struggle vigorously in order to save branches from entering into eyes. Everyone’s hands were getting badly bruised due to the rough undergrowths. All had to open the sleeves of the uniform in order to save bruising. But the face could still not be saved. But, it was in such dense bushes that the dacoits or jungle parties made their homes. Just after some distance we came across the first abode of the gang we sought to chase.

It consisted of about six beds mad of cut branches of rahri. The beds were seemingly quite comfortable and were supplied with sort of pillows also made from the same bushes. From the site, one could assess that the gang had probably spent the night at that place and the beds seemed to have been quite freshly laid. They had placed the beds in between bushes to protect themselves from the fog and dew. The dacoits generally place a chadar (sheet) on these beds and cover their tops with polythene sheets to save themselves from the dew drops. The hostile circumstances in which they lived made us realise the hard lives of the criminals.