Jatinga (Pron: ʤʌˈtɪŋgə or ʤæˈtɪŋgə ), a village on a ridge, is located in Dima Hasao district, Assam, India. It is south of

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

The village is inhabited by about 2,500 Khasi people. It is well known for being the location of mysterious bird deaths.

Mysterious bird deaths

At the end of the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

months especially on moonless and foggy dark nights between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m usually in the months of September and October, birds are not disturbed by the locals but out of the dark northern skies will start to descend as they are attracted to lights. These dazed birds are captured using bamboo poles by the locals. The local tribals first took this natural phenomenon to be spirits flying from the sky to terrorize them. This phenomenon is not confined to a single species, with tiger bittern, black bittern, little egret, pond heron, Indian pitta, and

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

s all being affected, as well as hill partridge, green pigeon, emerald dove, necklaced laughingthrush, black drongo. The birds are mostly juvenile, according to Assam's best known ornithologist, Anwaruddin Choudhury. The late naturalist E. P. Gee brought this phenomenon to global attention in the 1960s. He drove to Jatinga with famed ornithologist Salim Ali. The cause of it is likely to be disorientation at high altitudes and high speed winds due to the widespread fog characteristic at the time. The zoological survey of India sent Sudhir Sengupta to unravel this mystery. The most recent description of the phenomenon and its comparison with similar incidents elsewhere in Malaysia, Philippines, and

Mizoram Mizoram is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its Capital city, capital and largest city. It shares 722-kilometres (449 miles) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar t ...

is found in the book ''The Birds of Assam'' by Anwaruddin Choudhury. He concluded that the birds, mostly juveniles and local migrants, are disturbed by high velocity winds at their roost. When the disturbed birds fly towards lights as refuge they are hit with bamboo poles and killed or injured.Choudhury, Anwaruddin U. (2000). ''The Birds of Assam''. Gibbon Books & WWF-India, Guwahati. 240 pp. Conservation groups and wildlife officials in India have taken steps to prevent wanton killing of birds across India. Bikash Brahma, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of Dima Hasao, stated the killings as well as the number of birds arriving at the village has been declining gradually since the last few years. Much of this is due to loss of habitat caused by "development and environment degradation".

References

{{Reflist Villages in Dima Hasao district Tourism in Assam Tourism in Northeast India

Mysterious bird deaths

See also

References