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Jatinga, famous
for the phenomenon of birds “committing suicide”, is located
on a spur of the Haflong ridge, the head quarter of the
district. It itself is an offshoot of the main ridge of the
Borail range. It is centrally
 located
at the junction of the roads leading to Haflong, Lumding and
Silchar. Here the mist & fog lie like a veil around the
beautiful face of the damsel from September to November.
During these late monsoon months, mysterious behaviour of
birds takes place. However, some other conditions are also
necessary for the phenomenon to occur. The air must be foggy,
cloudy or misty. If there is slight rain, it would be even
better. The wind must be from south to north. It should be
moonless dark nights. And the best time is between 7 p.m. and
10 p.m.
Curiously, most
of the doomed birds do not attempt to fly away after they land
near the lights. They look dazed and disheveled, perhaps due
to the trauma of the whole shocking experience. Such birds
fall easy pray to the villagers. Some of the birds hovering
around the light sources are brought down by a vigorous swing
of the bamboo
poles. Catapults are also used to bring down the birds in
flight as well as those perching on the trees and bushes near
the light sources.
However, contrary to the popular belief, birds do not commit
suicide. Under circumstances not yet fully explained, these
birds get caught in the fog and wind, get disoriented and seek
solace of the light sources put out by the villagers. They hit
against trees or other objects and get injured in their flight
towards the light source. The villagers hit the hovering birds
with bamboo poles or catapults to bring them down
Various studies
have been conducted to unravel the causes behind this
phenomenon. The record maintained show that 44 species have
been attracted to the light sources. It has been established
that the birds are not attracted to the entire Jatinga Ridge
but only to a well-defined strip, 1.5 km long and 200 metres
wide. Invariably the birds come in only from the north and
attempts at placing the lights on the southern side of the
ridge to attract the birds have failed. Another interesting
fact has been brought out is that no long distance migratory
bird gets attracted to the light traps. The victims are
resident birds of the adjacent valleys and hill slopes.
 The
unusual behaviour of the birds seems to occur due to the
peculiar weather conditions at Jatinga. There also appears to
be a correlation between the breeding period of the birds and
the Jatinga phenomenon. Studies also reveal that the flight of
water birds to Jatinga may be attributed to heavy rains and
floods and submergence of their natural habitat in the
surrounding areas. It has been observed that there was a high
congregation of birds at Jatinga during 1988 which happened to
be a year of high floods. Renowned ornithologists Dr. Salim
Ali, Dr. S.Sengupta, A. Rauf etc have carried out researches
on this subject. However, no single hypothesis
comprehensively explains the Jatinga mystery till date. The
problem deserves deeper scientific study from various angles. |
