SPOOKS 2: FOWL PLAY

The village of Jatinga in Assam is haunted by a deadly secret. Every year, at the end of the monsoons, Jatinga turns into a site of mass bird suicides, earning this quaint mountain hamlet an ominous title: “The Valley of Death.” Why do hundreds of birds swarm the skies above Jatinga and plunge to their deaths? Do birds intentionally come here to die? Or is there something else that pulls them here?

One strange story. One disturbed place. Many unsolved questions. This is Spooks, a new miniseries in the world of ‘Rumors’. 

Just like Rumors, Bound helps brands and storytellers create high-quality, knowledgeable, and stellar podcasts with our end-to-end podcast and video production services. Reach out to our producer, Aishwarya Javalgekar, at aishwarya@boundindia.com to get started on your podcasting journey or analyze if a podcast is right for you.

‘Rumors’ shines a light on the darkest corners of India, where fact and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

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Written and voiced by Chandrima Das, a best-selling author, storyteller and an avid collector of dark tales. Follow her @hackiechan on all social media platforms.

Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound design by Aditya Arya
Artwork by Artisto Designz

Disclaimer: This show is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to outrage, insult, defame, or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs, feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition, black magic and/ or witchcraft. While every effort has been made in research, we do not make any representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability or completeness of the content.

Transcript

Chandrima Das  00:00

This show was made for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to outrage insult, defame or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition black magic and or witchcraft. listeners should exercise their discretion mountains, wildlife and lush greenery culture are the music and hidden gems for tourists. These are the usual things that come to mind when northeast India is mentioned. But beneath the surface of this wholesome image, lie a few deadly secrets. One such secret haunts the village of Jatin Gah, in Assam. Over the decades, this quaint corner of the Boreal mountain range has earned an ominous title the valley of death. Why? Because every year at the end of the monsoons, Chattanooga turns into a site of mass suicides. One strange story, one disturbed place and many unanswered questions. This is spokes, a miniseries From the world of romance. Night embraces the village of Chaturanga. Monsoon clouds pregnant with rain, gathering the skies above. A strong southern wind pushes them closer and denser. Soon these hungry clouds blot out, but the hunger is not yet satisfied. Slowly, the clouds descend towards land, weaving a shroud of mist that envelops the village. As darkness finds new tables, the villagers of chatting gas switch on beams of harsh light that cut through the night. These lights have a purpose that's about to be revealed. The villagers bear through the light rain and hideaway, waiting patiently. Suddenly, a loud thump breaks the pitter patter of raindrops. uracil follows bodies flying too hard surfaces. wings flap, Bones brain bertscope There has been and dead hundreds of birds now swarm the skies about shutting down, appearing out of thin air like causes some crash into trees, houses and lights at high speed, like hailstones on a stormy night. Their screams and squawks are preceded by the crunch of flesh and bone and so much blood. In half an hour, the chaos ends. Villagers emerge from the hiding places. They find some birds wandering around on two legs, dazed and confused. Others lie on the ground. The fortunate among them are dead, next broken, the less fortunate. Ly injured, skulking in pain until the villagers descend upon them and put them out of their misery. This violent gory spectacle plays out here every year without fail. jutting gussets on the boreal mountain range in the southern part of Assam, located centrally at the junction of the roads that lead to the towns of haflong, lumding and Silchar. Like many places in northeast India, lush, calming shades of green surround the small mountain village oranges and pineapples grow in abundance here, and the scenery holds you into stillness. With this beauty covers a gory secret. Every year, nature holds a bloodbath and chatting. hundreds, if not 1000s of birds descend upon this patch of land, apparently with the intent to commit suicide. Now while suicide is an acknowledged risk among humans, animals suicide is a more controversial topic. The decision to NS one life implies a range of higher cognitive capacities, such as a concept of self depth, and future intention. Concepts that experts are wary of ascribing to nonhumans so two birds intentionally come to Chattanooga to die, or is there something else that pulls them here? Presently, jutting guys home to a small community of Jayanthi are tribals. But this was not always the case. The villagers recall a story passed down by the ancestors about how they came to settle here. Back in the 19th century, it was Naga tribals who lived in jutting one moonless night, a buffalo went missing. A large group of men set out to search for it. With lighted flares in hand. They wandered through the forest, not realizing they were coming closer and closer to the jutting garbage. No sooner had been reached the rage when dozens of birds emerge from the darkness, and literally fell on their heads like hailstones. Terrified out of the weeds, the men ran for the lungs. Soon, a rumor spread through the village. The jutting garbage was infested by evil spirits. haunted by a perpetual fear of the unknown, the Nagas eventually vacated the area. A few years later, in the early 20th century, a group of Jayanthi tribals arrived here, looking for a place to settle down. The neighboring Nagas pointed them in the direction of the ridge. It was a good, fertile piece of land. But there was one problem. Those pesky evil spirits who like to possess birds and fall on the heads of unsuspecting humans. Now most of these giant PR settlers were Christian converts. Faith in the new religion helped them shrug off these superstitious beliefs. They decided to settle down in Chattanooga. Anyway. By 19 110, the giant years of Chattanooga had discovered that the birds only descended on the village between the months of August and October. That to under very specific weather conditions. They also discovered that lighting fires attracted the birds like magnets. So what did the giant atheists do? They believe that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. And when nature gives you mass birth suicides you make dinner. Bird catching soon became an annual late monsoon carnival, with hundreds being captured for food. So what are the conditions necessary for the bird suicide phenomenon, or bird catching festival as the locals prefer to call it. The air must be foggy, cloudy or Misty. That is low visibility moonless nights help a lot. If there is slight rain, the likelihood increases further. The wind has to be blowing from south to north, and the ideal time for this is between seven to 10pm. Once these conditions are met, the villagers shine bright lights out into the night sky like deacons calling the birds blinded by darkness and unable to navigate the high velocity monsoon winds the birds become transfixed They fly dangerously low. And that's how some ended up splattering quite dramatically into trees, houses and the lights themselves. But contrary to the popular narrative, only a few birds descending on the village, die and instant death. For the majority, the villagers have a role to play in hastening the end. The birds hovering around light sources are brought down by a vigorous swing of bamboo poles. Catapults are used to bring down the birds in flight, and those perching on trees and bushes near light sources. The villagers say that violence isn't even necessary. The birds rarely try to escape when picked up. Even the ones left alive, refuse food, and would starve to death, if not killed, as one can well imagine, at least for those two months in the year. The villagers of Chattanooga eat well, really well. For the birds, this may be the valley of death. But for the villagers, it is the Valley of abundance to the Jayanthi, as definitely don't believe in evil spirits and possession, but they haven't come up with an alternative explanation either. What does science say are the similar examples in other animals. The other widely known case of mass animal suicide is of lemmings in Europe. Lemmings migrate when the population becomes too large for the local food supply to sustain them. During these migrations, they swim across water bodies, and not all of them make it to land alive. This unfortunate consequence of migration is mistakenly perceived as mass suicide. Many scientists think that migration gone wrong might also be playing out in Chattanooga. The birth suicides only occur during the late monsoon when several water bodies in the region are flooded. Local birds lose their homes and are forced to migrate to safer pastures. This is why various local species like Bitterns, egrets, herons and kingfishers end up taking part in this death right and conspicuous by their absence, a long distance migratory birds whose habitats are not endangered by floods. History also lends credence to this theory 1988 was a year of extreme flooding in South Assam. As you'd expect, there was a higher than usual congregation of birds at Jatoba that year. So science concludes that the cause of these apparent suicides is migration. But other mysteries remain. Since Indian ornithologists began maintaining records and chatting the 38 bird species have been listed in the villages catch, including partridges, batons, doves, and even water birds like more hands and kingfishers. And yet, certain species of local birds resist the fatal siren call. grounds on bills and Imperial pigeons have never been caught in Chattanooga. Evil sparrows miners and trashes, which can be seen in hundreds by day around the village never succumb to the phenomenon. The other mystery is the specificity of the place. Birds are not attracted to the entire jutting carriage, but only to a well defined strip, which is about one and a half kilometers long and 200 meters wide. And they only fly in from the north. In the 1980's, forest officials placed lights on the southern side of the ridge to divert the birds away from the village and prevent them from dying. But the birds simply flew past and descended on the village anyway. Why? No one knows. Over the last few years, the number of birds caught a Jatinder has gradually declined. There just aren't enough birds left in the area. This decline in the number of birds is because local species are slowly losing their habitat development and environmental degradation I have reduced the populations far more than both suicides and hunting ever could. As for the local Jayanthi, or community, each year, the feast gets poorer. So what if you found yourself living in a place where birds dashed themselves to death? What would you do? The giant theists had a unique response to this question. They took what was seen as a swarm of evil spirits by the Nagas and transformed it into the annual celebration. They subsisted off nature's mysterious bounty for more than 100 years, neither questioning it nor shrouding it in lore, but simply accepting it for what it was. One person's terror is another person's opportunity. Perhaps some mysteries will never be fully solved. But as the Jayanthi has reminded us, they can certainly be celebrated as long as the last Thank you for listening to spooks, meaning series from the world of rumors. I'm Chandra Madonna's collector and Teller of dark tales, and the creator of this podcast in collaboration with bound a company that helps you grow through stories produced by Aishwarya as our shaker and sound designed by other Thea Aria. Join me every Friday on this quest into the lesser known side of the subcontinent. Subscribe rate and review for new episodes every week. Sleep safe tonight. Who knows what awaits in the dark?