Jatinga – Assam (Mass Bird Suicides)

The village of Jatinga in the Dima Hasao district of Assam has a population of around 2500. The village is world famous for its phenomenon of bird suicides. Most of the migratory birds visiting the area never leave the village and just drop to their death on the streets. The case gets even inscrutable in the sense that these birds plummet to their death precisely between 06:00 p.m. to 09:30 p.m. on the moonless nights of September and October. These mass suicides only occur on a specific 1 mile by 600 feet strip of land and this phenomenon is said to have occurred year after year without a break for more than a century. Many theories have been offered by scientists to explain this phenomenon, the most popular one being that these birds are attracted towards village lights that confuse them. Another theory that makes more sense is the presence of excessive magnetic field in the area that disorients them. Though more theories continue to arise, no one has yet been able to prove the exact explanation behind this phenomenon.