Gaya, Jan. 31: An ancient statue of Buddha, stolen from Lohjara village in Gaya district in 2014 and recovered two years later from Nalanda district, has been restored at its original place following the efforts of heritage activists and villagers.

The 4.5ft statue, dating back to the 9th-10th century, was recovered from Sithuara village in Nalanda last year after the theft was reported to the Art Loss Register (ALR), London, with the help of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, a deemed university.

The ALR helps track stolen artefacts. Auction houses like Sotheby's, Bonhams and other potential buyers like museums in Europe and America always crosscheck the artefacts with the ALR before buying. Since the Lohjara Buddha statue was registered at ALR, the gang that stole the statue could not find an international buyer and the statue was dumped in Nalanda.

"Efforts will be made to get a temple built in Lohjara from donations to ensure safety of the statue," said heritage activist Deepak Anand.

After the recovery, Lohjara villagers had to fulfil legal formalities to get the statue restored in the village.

Ramesh Pandey, who got the FIR lodged with Wazirganj police station about the theft in July 2014, said: "We got to know about recovery of the statue in Nalanda from newspaper reports in July 2016. As we had proper documentation of the existing ancient statues and other art pieces, I accompanied other villagers to Rajgir police station in Nalanda. There, we matched the recovery with the photograph available. When it was confirmed that the recovered statue was the one stolen in 2014 from our village, we produced a copy of the FIR at Rajgir police station. Following other legal formalities, including permission from the court for release of the statue, we got the statue restored in the village.

"Villagers plan to build a boundary wall with a gate at the place where the statue has been kept," added Ramesh.

Nava Nalanda Mahavihara former director Ravindra Panth, associated with International Buddhist Confederation, said over phone from Delhi: "In 2010, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara had documented ancient art pieces in more than 250 villages in Gaya, Nalanda, Jehanabad, Nawada and Sheikhpura districts. We had also conducted three 'Engaged Buddhism' workshops, where more than 200 heritage volunteers took part.

"The sculptures in villages of Bihar are very vulnerable and need to be properly documented to prevent their theft," he added.