Bucho Mandiਬੁੱਚੋ ਮੰਡੀ

Where is Bucho Mandi?

Bucho Mandi is a town and municipal council in Bathinda district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, about 15 kilometres east of Bathinda city in Bathinda tehsil. The mandi in its name tells its character: this is a market town first, built where the villages of the Bathinda countryside bring their grain and cotton to sell. Its council has 13 wards, and its station, Bhuchchu, keeps it on the railway map of the district.

A young census town

Bucho Mandi is a recent town by Punjab standards. It was first counted as a town in the census of 1951, with just 1,624 people, and by 1961 it had 2,277. Growth came with the mandi and the railway: 10,006 people in 1991, 13,246 in 2001 and 14,961 in 2011. The town spread along the roads out of the old market core as the grain trade, the commission agents' shops and the transport businesses grew around it.

Geography and people

The 2011 census counted 14,961 people in Bucho Mandi: 7,805 men and 7,156 women, a sex ratio of about 917 women for every 1,000 men. Of the 13,243 residents aged seven and above, 10,098 were literate, about 76.2 per cent. Scheduled Castes numbered 5,291, a large share of the town. By religion, the census counted 9,578 Hindus, 4,969 Sikhs and 320 Muslims.

What is Bucho Mandi known for?

The town is known first for its mandi, one of the biggest food grain and cotton markets in Bathinda district, where the wheat, paddy and kapas of the surrounding villages change hands in season. Around the trade sits a belt of small industry: cotton ginning units, rice mills, non-woven fabric bag units, and cotton cake and oil factories. Bucho Mandi is also known in the district for its marble, tiles and carpet work, the finishing trades that supply the houses of the town and its villages.

The mandi at work

The market year follows the crops. Wheat comes into the yard in April and May, paddy in the autumn, and cotton through the winter, and for each harvest the same chain goes to work: the farmers' trolleys queue at the commission agents' shops, the grain is weighed, cleaned and auctioned, and the buyers' trucks carry it out to the mills. Bucho Mandi holds the whole chain inside one small town, for the cotton ginning units and rice mills stand alongside the market, and the cotton cake and oil factories take what the ginning leaves. It is that complete chain, from the field to the mill within a few streets, that makes this town of under 15,000 people one of the biggest grain and cotton markets in Bathinda district.

Town life

For its own people, Bucho Mandi is a compact town of 13 municipal wards gathered around the mandi and the station road. Its Government Senior Secondary School is the town's best known public building, taking its students through to Class 12. The villages of Bhucho Kalan and Bhucho Khurd, which share the town's post office and its PIN code 151101, wrap around the town, so that in daily life the mandi town and its two Bhucho villages work as one settlement. Bathinda city, about 15 kilometres away, is the district headquarters for everything above the town's own level.

Railway, roads and getting there

Bhuchchu station, code BCU, serves the town on the Bathinda to Rajpura line, in the Ambala division of the Northern Railway. The station has two platforms on a double, electrified line, with Bathinda Cantonment on one side and Lahira Khana on the other. By road, the town is a short run from Bathinda city, and buses link it with the district's other market towns, including Rampura Phul and Bhagta Bhai Ka. Its PIN code is 151101.

What is the population of Bucho Mandi?

The population of Bucho Mandi was 14,961 at the 2011 census, 7,805 men and 7,156 women. The town was first counted in 1951 with 1,624 people and had 13,246 in 2001.

What is Bucho Mandi famous for?

Bucho Mandi is famous in Bathinda district for its food grain and cotton market, one of the biggest in the district, and for its marble, tiles and carpet work, alongside cotton ginning, rice mills and oil and cotton cake factories.