Kachua

Kachua or 'Kachuadham' is a village under Basirhat II block of North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is known for being the birth place of Lokenath Brahmachari, a Hindu philosopher and Yogi in Eastern India. Located in the Ganges delta, Kachua is a regional spot for thousands of Hindu devotees of Lokenath. It is situated at a distance of 28.9 km from sub-district headquarter Krishnapur. Barasat is the district headquarter of Kachua village. As per 2009 stats, 'Kemia Khamarpara' is the gram panchayat of Kachua village. The postal code of Kachua is 743424. The Indian National Highway NH12 connects to the village.

Location
Kachua is located 30 km from the state capital city Kolkata. It is located in the Basirhat II Block in North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. The surrounding nearby villages and its distance from Kachua are Dhanyakuria 2.4 km, Kholapota 8.6 km.

Area overview
According to land area calculations, the Kachua village is approximately 84.5 hectares large. Since Kachua falls under the block of Basirhat II as graded by Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2021, it does not have a water supply scheme. According to the same report, a number of water sources in the village are contaminated by arsenic, and should be analysed before use and crops with low water requirement can be grown in the area.

Demographics
According to a 2011 census, Kachua village itself has a population of just 704 whereas "Kachua-Swarupnagar" has about 8383. A report by the Government of India predicted the population to spike at around 9392 in 2021 at a decadal growth of 12.04%.

According to another report, there are 173 registered scheduled caste (SC) persons of which 77 are females and 96 are males. Females constitute 44.51% and males constitute 55.49% of the scheduled castes population. Scheduled castes constitute 24.57% of the total population.

Administration
When it comes to administration, Kachua village is administrated by a sarpanch who is elected representative of the village by the local elections. The sarpanch of Kachua is Farida Bibi. Kachua falls under the State Legislative Assembly of Basirhat Uttar Constituency headed by Rafikul Islam Mondal and under the Lok Sabha Constituency of Basirhat headed by TMC Member of Parliament Nusrat Jahan.

Religious significance and controversy
Kachua is often referred to as 'Kachuadham' and is considered the birthplace of the Hindu Yogi Lokenath Brahmachari. It also consists of the temple compound around the birthplace, a holy pond and the Lokenath Mission - that is responsible for the administration of the temple grounds. Besides the Lokenath Temple, it even has a temple dedicated to Krishna and Radha Gobinda.

On 23 August 2019, on the eve of Janmashtami event, an accident happened, where an old wall broke off leading to a stampede, on devotees of Lokenath Brahmachari, and led to the injury of 16 people. According to many reports, three people lost their lives in this incident too. According to a "The Indian Express" article, 5 people lost their lives that day.