Night of falling birds. Vodyanoy from vedlozero

The anomalous valley “Jatinga”, located in India, is now known throughout the world. What is happening there frightens Europeans, but Indians take it calmly, considering it a gift from the gods. Periodically, birds flying over the valley for unexplained reasons fall from the sky, falling to their deaths. It should be noted that cases of bird suicide are far from isolated. Sometimes the number of birds reaches hundreds, which benefits local residents who consume different kinds birds for food.

The phenomenon of bird suicide still has no explanation

The first to describe the mysterious anomalous phenomena of the Jatinga valley in his book “The Virgin Nature of India” was E. P. Ji, who was a famous expert in the field of tea growing. He had to visit the country for work, as India is the birthplace of many varieties of tea. During one of these sightings, Ji witnessed a bird fall, which he decided to tell the whole world about.

Bird “suicide” in the Jatinga valley, interestingly, occurs with a certain frequency - annually at the end of summer (in August). The valley, in turn, is located in the Indian state of Assam.

Ji, mentioned earlier, watched with his own eyes how hundreds of different birds crashed into the ground of their own free will, breaking everything they could for themselves, after which satisfied local residents raced to collect them. The tea grower asked the locals about the phenomenon. It turned out that they also don’t know why this is happening. Many Hindus associated the birdfall with a miracle. They were sure that this was how the deities expressed their love for the people.

Initially, scientists perceived the description of bird suicide, which was published in Gee’s book, as a fantastic invention of the author, without attaching any significance to it. Most ornithologists, after reading the book, declared that this was physically impossible. Firstly, not all birds are suicidal. Secondly, in such large numbers, birds, which are real suicides, do not crash. Imagine their surprise when other descriptions of eyewitnesses of the events in the Jatinga valley appeared.

The first zoologist who decided to independently verify the anomaly was zoologist Sengupta, who reached the above-mentioned valley at the end of August 1960. He agreed with the local residents to allow him to attend the “falling birds festival,” which was not so easy to do.

Deep trance leading to suicide

The Jatinga Valley is located in the so-called geopathogenic zone - a depression among the mountains. On its territory there is a small village inhabited by indigenous people of India. There are practically no tourists in that area, so no one knew about the anomaly for a long time. Once a year, its inhabitants organize a mass festival, described earlier, during which an inexplicable phenomenon occurs. People from neighboring villages come to the holiday.

The celebration begins with the collection of brushwood. Participants in the event collect it in large piles, lay it out in a certain way, and then set it on fire. Everything is accompanied by chants and dances characteristic of Indian culture. As night approaches, hundreds of birds gather in the sky above the valley various breeds and sizes. Initially, they circle above the heads of the dancing people, and then begin to rise higher and higher. The celebration ends with the fall of the birds, which are later collected by all participants in the celebration.

Free game is cleaned on site and prepared in a certain way. This meal is considered sacred. Local residents take the phenomenon for granted and thank the gods for it. Birds commit suicide during the last three nights of summer. The anomalous phenomenon has been repeated annually for fifty years.

Earlier it was said about an ornithologist named Sengupta, who decided to be the first to study the anomaly of the Jatinga valley. During the holiday, he caught several live birds and noticed that they were all lethargic and depressed. The ornithologist noted that the birds he caught seemed to be in a state of trance. He decided to watch them longer, for which he placed the birds in cages and took them with him. For some time the birds did not eat anything or drink water, but then they fully recovered and began to behave normally and naturally, after which the ornithologist decided to release them.

According to Sengupta, local atmospheric conditions as well as geophysical defects are the cause of the birds' abnormal behavior. Perhaps the events in the valley are associated with certain cosmic phenomena. The scientist was unable to make a more accurate conclusion, since the anomaly of the Jatinga valley is unique and inimitable of its kind.

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Valley of Falling Birds. The Jatinga Valley in Assam province, also called the “Valley of Falling Birds,” is a 2x10-kilometer depression surrounded by forested slopes.

In the middle of the valley there is a small village where life flows as slowly as it did a hundred years ago. Only once a year does Jatinga come to life. By the end of August, peasants from all over the area come here to take part in an unusual festival, the name of which is translated as "Nights of Falling Birds"

IN last days In the summer, when the nights get longer, fires flare up in the village square, and as midnight approaches, flocks of birds appear in the air. Some circle above people's heads, others immediately fall to the ground.

“Birdfall” lasts 2-3 nights in a row, and it is regularly repeated for many decades.

Found a mysterious Valley of Falling Birds English tea grower E.P. Ji, who personally observed this inexplicable phenomenon and described it in a book in 1957 "The virgin nature of India." He himself was not an ornithologist, and experts considered his report of a strange phenomenon to be an idle fiction.

Only zoologist Sengupta became interested in the unusual behavior of birds and went to the mountains of Assam to check on the spot the authenticity of the described anomaly.

The words of the English tea grower turned out to be true. Moreover, during bird fall“Some birds flew straight into the room if the light was on. According to Sengupta, they were in a semi-conscious state and did not even try to escape when they were picked up. This condition lasts for several days in birds. All this time they sit motionless, refuse food, but then, being released into the wild, they fly away. The birds that were unable to survive this night are collected for a festive meal.

ABOUT « » Sengupta reported to fifty prominent ornithologists in Europe and the United States. But none of them could offer an explanation for the Assamese bird strike. Moreover, in their common opinion, nothing like this has ever been observed anywhere else in the world.

The valley residents themselves explain the phenomenon this way.

They claim that in such an unusual way the gods reward them for their righteousness.

In the memory of many generations, not a single significant crime had been committed in the valley - no murders, no thefts, no adulteries.

Sengupta himself came to the conclusion that the reasons for the strange “birdfall” were geophysical anomalies and extremely special condition atmospheres that, overlapping each other, disrupt the coordination of birds flying over the valley. But this is only a hypothesis that still needs experimental verification.

Birds in flight are guided by the Sun, Moon, stars, magnetic and possibly gravitational fields of the Earth. For some, obviously, certain fluctuations in atmospheric pressure can serve as a guide.

The scientist suggests that there is a magnetic anomaly under the valley, but its effect appears only under a certain state of the atmospheric electric field and only at night. Sengupta believes that birds asleep in their nests in a hypnotic or somnambulistic state fly into the light of lit fires, like moths into the light.

Despite a large number of There are still no clear explanations for this phenomenon.

The Jatinga Valley in Assam province, also called the “Valley of Falling Birds,” is a 2x10-kilometer depression surrounded by forested slopes.

In the last days of summer, as the nights grow longer, bonfires flare up in the village square, and as midnight approaches, flocks of birds appear in the air. Some circle above people's heads, others immediately fall to the ground. “Birdfall” lasts 2-3 nights in a row, and it is regularly repeated for many decades.

The mysterious valley was discovered by the English tea grower E.P. Ji, who personally observed this inexplicable phenomenon and in 1957 described it in the book “The Virgin Nature of India”. He himself was not an ornithologist, and experts considered his report of a strange phenomenon to be an idle fiction. Only zoologist Sengupta became interested in the unusual behavior of birds and went to the mountains of Assam to check on the spot the authenticity of the described anomaly.

The words of the English tea grower turned out to be true. Moreover, during the “birdfall”, individual birds flew directly into the room if the light was on. According to Sengupta, they were in a semi-conscious state and did not even try to escape when they were picked up. This condition lasts for several days in birds. All this time they sit motionless, refuse food, but then, being released into the wild, they fly away. The birds that were unable to survive this night are collected for a festive meal.

Sengupta reported the “Jatinga phenomenon” to fifty prominent ornithologists in Europe and the United States. But none of them could offer an explanation for the Assamese bird strike. Moreover, in their common opinion, nothing like this has ever been observed anywhere else in the world. The valley residents themselves explain the phenomenon this way. They claim that in such an unusual way the gods reward them for their righteousness. In the memory of many generations, not a single significant crime has been committed in the valley - no murders, no thefts, no adulteries.

Sengupta himself came to the conclusion that the reasons for the strange “bird fall” are geophysical anomalies and an extremely special state of the atmosphere, which, overlapping each other, disrupt the coordination of birds flying over the valley. But this is only a hypothesis that still needs experimental verification.

Birds in flight are guided by the Sun, Moon, stars, magnetic and possibly gravitational fields of the Earth. For some, obviously, certain fluctuations in atmospheric pressure can serve as a guide.

The mountains of Assam in India hide quite a mysterious place called Jatinga, where every year in August there are inexplicable events involving birds that simply begin to fall from the sky. Because of this, this area is also called the Valley of Falling Birds. Many skeptics consider this to be something supernatural and inexplicable, implying some mysterious events. However, scientists explain this phenomenon in a different way, so you should understand the data of the event in more detail and study this area in order to dot all the i’s.

This valley is located next to the village, and is surrounded on all sides by forest. Every year, the residents of this village, with the onset of the bird fall, are accustomed to celebrating the “Night of Falling Birds” holiday. This event quickly became famous all over the world, and every year in August more and more tourists gather here, whose attention was attracted by such unusual behavior of the birds.

These events take place at the very end of August. First, the birds begin to circle at a low altitude from the ground, and then simply fall. The villagers are already ready for this, quickly collect the loot and cook it over lit fires. The duration of the bird fall is 2-3 nights, and it was first identified more than half a century ago.

In 1957, the famous tea grower from England E.P. Ji accidentally discovered this behavior of birds, and paid attention to it in his own book. However, initially, not everyone believed in the possibility of such a birdfall, since the author of the book could not be called an expert in the study of birds.

But the ornithologist scientist from India, Sengupta, took the Englishman’s note into account, and in 1977 he visited an unusual area. He saw with his own eyes a repetition of the event described in the book, and noted that the birds behaved atypically, allowed themselves to be taken in hand, and those that were caught and released the next day simply flew away without falling again.

After this, a more active study of this anomaly began, but even the most outstanding ornithologists have not yet been able to explain its nature. What makes this event even more unusual is the fact that no other similar cases have been recorded on the planet. Sengupta himself believes that birds are affected by geophysical anomalies and special atmospheric conditions, as a result of which nervous system the birds fall into a trance.

Local residents believe that in this way the gods praise them for their righteous lifestyle, since this village has not heard of murders, robberies and other things for a long time. illegal actions.

In addition, scientists are still struggling with the mystery of what birds focus on during flight. It is likely that the solution to this will help solve the Indian phenomenon of birdfall. There is no clear answer to any question; there are assumptions that are one way or another closer to the truth.

India has been the leader in beauty, mysticism and mystery for several centuries. Moreover, in it they coexist peacefully as the old ones, with thousand years of history, riddles and secrets that appeared not so long ago - but no less inexplicable. One of them is Jatinga - Valley of Falling Birds.

Fantastic observations

Perhaps during the time of English expansion in India, many Europeans observed a strange phenomenon, but no one bothered to leave written evidence about it. The first was a tea specialist who was looking for new varieties, E.P. Ji, and this happened when India was already a free and independent country - in 1957. The venerable tea grower wrote a book called “The Virgin Nature of India,” in which he described what he saw with his own eyes: how huge flocks of birds flock, how they circle over a small village, after which they rain down at the feet of joyful local residents.

This message was met with skepticism by the enlightened world. In principle, the respected Mr. Ji had nothing to do with biology and ornithology, so his story was perceived by scientists as another Indian story in the style of “a mysterious country and unusual phenomena in it.” However, not everyone turned out to be so distrustful. Zoologist Sengupta became interested in the strange phenomenon of his native country, three years after the publication of the book, he was not too lazy to go to Jatinga and see with his own eyes that the birds falling from the sky, pardon the pun, were not “ducks”. He notified more than fifty of his scientific colleagues about this, and only after that they believed in the phenomenon and even began to study it.

Paradise

Throughout the year, except for a few days, a small Indian valley in the state of Assam (in last years renamed Asom) leads an ordinary rural life. Geologists, by the way, would argue with the definition: they would not call the area a valley. It would be more accurate to say that Jatinga is a small depression between overgrown forests and not too high mountains.

The population here is small and does the usual daily work, does not live richly, but does not beg. There are no special attractions in the area, so local residents were not spoiled by tourist attention until the landmark seventies. Now for a couple of months a year they are happily fed by tourists who come in advance to look at the wonder.

"Nights of Falling Birds"

The quiet life of a provincial village becomes very lively at the very end of summer. Peasants living within walking distance gather there in anticipation of a miracle. And in recent decades, even those who can, leaving in the morning, get here in the evening (fortunately, due to tourism, transport runs regularly).

When night falls on the mountains, Indians light many fires. And the stunned Europeans, who had planned their arrival at this moment, watch as a cloud of birds gathers over the village. Interestingly, outside the small valley (only 200 meters in width and one and a half kilometers in length) not a single bird is observed. Around midnight, a real birdfall begins from the sky. After circling for a long time over the fires, the flocks rise quite high into the sky and dive into the ground, crashing to death. Falls last no longer than five minutes, and often end earlier. Locals pick up the broken “catch” and, with songs and thanks to the gods, immediately roast it on fires built in advance. The phenomenon repeats for two or three nights, after which the birds lose all interest in the Jatinga Valley.

It is worth noting that not all winged creatures fall lifelessly to the ground. There are frequent cases of birds flying into houses where the windows are open and the lights are on. In this case, they are given into the hands without resistance; it seems that the birds are drugged by something. While with temporary owners, they sit almost motionless, do not eat, drink or react to anything, and after a few days the birds return to vivacity. Once released, they cheerfully fly away and return to normal life. Local residents do not try to classify such flyers as prey and unquestioningly release them a few days after the “Nights of the Fall.” Only broken “gifts from heaven” are used for food.

Mythological background

Ornithologists believe that the August fall of birds has been familiar to Indians from the Jatinga Valley for many centuries. They just didn’t advertise this event, quite possibly fearing some measures from the British. But now they are happy with their fate - the birdfall has provided them with an increase in personal well-being.

The Indians explain the phenomenon extremely simply: it is a gift from the gods for a righteous life (remember the biblical manna from heaven?). There is nothing special to object to here: during the time that some kind of documentation has been carried out in the village, not a single case has been registered here, let alone murder, or even theft. Locals claim that adultery, like other crimes, has not occurred in the valley for several centuries.

Theoretical background

Rain from various kinds of animals is, in principle, a rare phenomenon, but not unique. Most often, the role of “sediment” is fish or frogs. Let us leave aside the fact that this, too, has not yet found an explanation. The hypothesis that speaks of the wind “gathering” its population from the surface of the Earth does not stand up to criticism, since then species diversity it would be much wider. Indeed, the wind doesn’t care whether it’s frogs, snakes or hedgehogs, but such rains always affect a narrower contingent.

The Indian phenomenon is even more confusing. The birds are not brought by any outside force. They fly in on their own, and for some time they act quite intelligently, although unjustifiably. We are not talking about any bad weather. In any case, over 60 years of third-party observations, not even light rain has been noticed during a bird fall.

On the other hand, there is actual evidence of no less strange cases. For example, for Valencia, a Spanish region, 1880 was marked by a rain of quails. Moreover, there were no other birds in the “precipitation”. No less mysterious is the case of 1969, which occurred this time in Maryland, where the “rain” consisted exclusively of canaries. However, scientists are not ready to include the Jatinga phenomenon in this list. And primarily due to the fact that the phenomenon is repeated from year to year, and is not noted only once.

Scientific research

The first assumptions belong to Sentgupta, who was the first to describe the phenomenon with scientific point vision. He believes that the root cause of the birdfall was geophysical anomalies combined with the specific state of the atmosphere above the valley. According to his hypothesis, one overlaps with the other, which throws off some kind of settings in the birds’ navigation system. He also suggested that intuitively the birds begin to fly towards the light of the fires, adjusting their location when the “navigation” is not working. Another hypothesis put forward by him: under the valley there is a magnetic anomaly that confuses the winged brethren.

As a theory, the idea is good. However, it does not explain the seasonality, and a very short one, inherent in birdfall. In addition, the night time at which it occurs remains mysterious. A series of experiments carried out in the Jatinga Valley brought even more mysteries to scientists. In particular, Indian forestry, in an effort to clarify the situation at hour X, placed a powerful electric lamp on the tower. In theory, the birds were supposed to fly towards her. However, Sengupta, appointed by the Indian government to study the phenomenon, noted that the vast majority of the flock still headed towards the fires.

The issue of nocturnal behavior of birds also remains inexplicable; 97% of “kamikazes” are diurnal species. What made them interrupt the calm night sleep and leave the nest? Sengupta suggests hypnosis or somnambulism. But what, then, was its source?

Again - the direction of flight. The Jatinga runs from north to south, and on both sides of the valley the forest is completely identical. Moreover, it is mastered by the same species of winged birds, and they coexist in equal proportions. But in “The Night of Falling Birds” the victims fly only from the north. The southern ones calmly watch their dreams. In this case, one more condition must be met: during the mass death of birds, the wind must blow from the south. Another fact may seem interesting: a huge number of wild birds live in the village itself. During the year they fly wherever they want, and often also “argue” with their forest brothers. But when the “nights of falling birds” approach, they do not leave the village, even if they are forced to limit themselves in their diet - scientists conducted similar experiments, forbidding the natives to feed their “neighbors.” But these birds never become victims of falling from the sky.

And how can this phenomenon be explained? Maybe science will someday understand what the matter is...