Jatinga – A Place Of Mystery

We might have heard about many stories that have created an impact or sometimes, even give us a shock. Jatinga – located in the Dima Hasao District, Assam is known as the ‘Valley of Death’ for innocent birds. It is a very mysterious phenomenon, which even the people of India are not very much aware of. Jatinga is a place that has damsel like beauty which is known for its beautiful mountain, and scenic beauty. But what makes the city unique is its Bird Mystery.

The story that this city portrays to us is very different from its real one. It has got 3 sides to it which explains the phenomena of the suicidal birds in the most shocking way. To the local visitors and foreigners, the story is that the birds are known to have suicidal tendencies since, during the earlier times, the locals used to think that there is some evil spirit that is trying to bring the birds down. It is also mentioned that in order to sacrifice their lives, the immigrant birds used to travel till Jatinga to commit suicide. This story pretty much spread across the state as well as the neighboring states, which also made the city quite popular. 

After some research, and studies that were involved stated that the story of the spirit was false and that the birds did not have any suicidal tendencies within them. It mentioned that the death of the birds took place due to the phenomena of the natural geographic state. The theory that has been proposed is that the birds were plunged to death due to high altitude, high winds, fog leads, that disoriented the birds, finally leading to their death. Now this story made educated people believe in it, however, there were some zoologist and ornithologists who still did not believe in it, and wanted to go in full-depth research of the mystery. 

In order to understand the cause of this mystery, the theories came out, which is still unknown to many of the tribals and the illiterate population. The reason behind the death has two factors- one of them being the geographical factors and the other being that when the birds hit the bamboo poles, they are killed or injured by some of the locals that belong to a tribal community known as Khasi-pnar. These birds are trapped only for commercial purposes by the locals.

In India, this is the only place where such phenomena take place, and in international places like Malaysia, the Philippines and Burma, such phenomena take place. What do you think about this phenomenon? Write to us in the comment section below!