Jatinga: The Death Valley

'Jetinga' was earlier settled by  Zeme Nagas in the 13th -14th centuries. Whenever they made bonfire night to celebrate their customary festivals and conducted dances in the open space, the birds used to come and jumped inside the fire and died in the bonfire.  They used to say that it was a bad omen, so they all deserted the village to escape the sight of the tragedy of the birds. Then the Khasi families were given freedom to settle in the said area. The land belonged to the Zeme Naga speaking group of Zeliangrong community and had named the land or area as JETINGA not JATINGA, Je= means 'Valley', Ting= means 'Ram accompanied with cloud or storm', Ga= means 'Way or frequent passage'.

The scenic Jatinga village on a ridge is located in Dima Hasao district (DHD), Assam . It is 330 km south of Guwahati. It is most famous for the phenomenon of birds “committing suicide”. The village is inhabited by about 2,500 Khasi tribal people and few Dimasa people.  It itself is an offshoot of the main ridge of the Borail range.  It is a very beautiful village which is the habitat of different kind of birds. It is a very interesting and thrilling place for adventurous tourists.

The valley has been known for decades for its mysterious bird – phenomenon during mid August to early November when on dark nights the mist and fog borne by a south-westerly wind passes over Jatinga along the valley towards the North East, the birds of varied species flock to the region. Besides avian creatures from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Siberia and the Indian Oceanic birds from other parts of the North East also fly across the valley. Those birds are often attracted by lights or burning objects, the birds plunge towards these attractions which is taken advantage of by the villagers who consider these migratory birds as delicacies. Most of the doomed birds do not attempt to fly away after they land near the lights. They look dazed, perhaps due to the trauma of the whole shocking experience. 

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. 

Despite the danger and the repeat performances every year, the birds continue to fly to their death in this small area of 1500 by 200 meters. A number of theories have been proposed, one suggesting that a combination of high altitude, high winds, and fog leads disorients the birds and they are attracted to the light of the village as a source of flight stabilization.

Another theory suggests that the weather conditions make changes in the electro-magnetic characteristics of the Jatinga ridge. The ridge is bounded nearly on all sides by fault planes. This combined with the mineral content of the valley with its high magnetic properties could be responsible for certain geo-physical changes in the atmosphere here. These are enhanced during the monsoon months of September and October when the ground water comes up almost to the ridge top of Jatinga. All these are believed to cause certain unusual changes in the gravitational pull around the region. 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 and disturb the physiological rhythm of the  birds and they start behaving abnormally towards the sources of light lit by villagers.

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.

Many tried to unravel this mystery but, till now no sole hypothesis is able to comprehensively explicate the Jatinga mystery. Echoing the same puzzling nature of the mysterious Jatinga, famous orinthologist, Dr.Salim Ali observed, "the most puzzling thing to me about this phenomenon is that so many species of diurnal resident birds should be on the move when, by definition, they should be fast asleep. The problem deserves a deeper scientific study from various angles".

Wildlife and bird societies in India have gone to the village to educate them about the phenomenon in an attempt to stop the mass killings of the birds. Since then bird deaths have decreased by forty percent. Government officials in Assam are hoping to use the phenomenon to attract tourists to the small city, and some work has gone into creating accommodations for visitors in Jatinga.