In the Indian state of Assam, on the spur of the Haflong mountain range and the crossroads of three roads, there is the picturesque Jatinga Valley. Once a year, in September, thousands of wild birds flock to this wonderfully beautiful place of flowering orchids and orange orchards, as if under hypnosis. They fall directly to the ground and either die or fall into a stupor. The reason for this mysterious phenomenon has not yet been revealed. But the locals are sure that this is a good sign, and they consider the "bird fall" a gift for good behavior.
Feast in honor of the death of birds
The strange phenomenon taking place in Jatinga is considered to be a mass suicide, although, of course, birds do not voluntarily commit suicide at all.
As a rule, this mysterious phenomenon occurs when several factors combine at once: monsoon southerly winds, foggy, humid air, or even drizzle and moonless nights. For more than a decade, local residents have been celebrating this event with a holiday, during which they light bonfires and catch helpless, disoriented birds.
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The villagers claim that such a "birdfall" has always been in the valley. They themselves consider this phenomenon a reward of the higher powers for the fact that they have worked properly all year and did not harm anyone. Therefore, during this "holiday" they catch helpless birds with joy and a feeling of gratitude in order to solemnly fry and eat them.
Birds of various species (kingfishers, herons, tiger bitterns, pitta, etc.) begin to flock to the fire closer to 22.00. They themselves land near the fires and either die or fall into a stupor - they just sit, not reacting to anything. A bird that has fallen into a kind of trance can be safely handled, and it will not try to escape.
During this action, it is even difficult to say which part of the birds that arrived fell to the ground voluntarily, and which part was killed. After all, the inhabitants of the village are intensively knocking down with bamboo poles both the birds flying up to the fire and those sitting next to them in the trees. Also, the poor birds are dazzled by the bright torches lit by people. However, some birds die even before they fly to the fires - for example, when they crash into poles, trees or houses.
If the bird survived and was not killed or eaten by the locals, after a couple of days it wakes up and flies away.
By the way, in ancient times, when the village was part of the possession of King Dimas, representatives of the mountain tribe Zeme Naga lived there. They were the first to witness the unusual behavior of birds. But, unlike modern villagers, the representatives of the ancient tribe were so frightened by this phenomenon that they took it for the wrath of the gods. They believed that evil spirits were falling from the sky in the form of birds, and in the end they left the village. For some time it was empty, until at the beginning of the last century it was settled by new residents - not so pessimistic about the “birdfall”.
Not everyone can be hypnotized
It is known that birds are disoriented by something at the moment when they get into fog and wind, and they instinctively fly towards light and heat. Moreover, not the entire mountain range possesses the properties of a kind of magnet, but only its certain territory - a clearly delineated strip one and a half kilometers long and 200 meters wide. Birds come in for landing only from the north, and attempts by people to place lights on the southern side of the ridge were unsuccessful - the birds did not react to them.
In the process of observing this phenomenon, another mysterious circumstance became clear: only those birds that live in the valleys and hillsides adjacent to this place demonstrate such strange behavior. But strangers, migratory birds, do not react to fires.
The Indians claim that those birds that live directly in their village do not fall into trance and do not fly to the fires either.
At first, the scientists did not believe it …
For the first time, a strange "birdfall" in the Jatinga Valley was seen by the tea planter and naturalist Ye Ji, who came to India on his work business. In 1957 his book "The Untouched Nature of India" was published, in which he mentioned this phenomenon. But since Gee was neither a zoologist nor an ornithologist, his story did not attract the attention of scientists at that time.
Only 20 years later, the famous local scientist-zoologist Sudhir Sengupta became interested in the Valley of Falling Birds. He spent many days in the Assam Valley and attended this strange holiday of local residents, after which he came to the conclusion that Ji's words were absolutely true, and notified his colleagues from Europe and America about it. Only after that the world scientific community began to globally study this phenomenon. In the course of research near an Indian village, scientists installed a tower with a bright searchlight to find out where the birds will fly during the "birdfall". To their disappointment, they did not react to the electric light, but all the same, as if under hypnosis, they flew towards the fires. As a result, the experts just threw up their hands, admitting: "The exact reason is not clear."
So far - only versions
Scientists from different countries put forward completely different hypotheses about the cause of the "bird fall". According to one, birds react to specific weather conditions that can only be observed in this place in India. For example, Dr. Anwaruddin Chowdhury, one of Assam's most famous bird watchers, believes that high wind speeds at high altitudes make birds fly down towards the fire. According to another version, in this way they are saved in Jatinga from torrential rains and floods occurring at this time in neighboring areas. However, none of the versions stands up to criticism and does not fully explain the process of bird death.
According to the latest research, with which Dr. Sengupta also agrees, during the flight, birds are guided by the Sun, other celestial bodies, as well as the magnetic and gravitational fields of the Earth. And, perhaps, underground in the Jatinga Valley, exactly in the place where a strange phenomenon occurs, once a year a powerful magnetic anomaly occurs, which lasts for two or three days. In combination with certain weather conditions and processes taking place in space (new moon, wind, high humidity, etc.), the magnetic field acts hypnotically on the feathered inhabitants of the surrounding forests. However, this is also just a hypothesis.
