Mysterious places around India
1. Jatinga — Assam (Mass Bird Suicides)
At the end of monsoon months especially on moonless and foggy dark nights between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., birds are disturbed by the locals and they are attracted to lights. These dazed birds are captured using bamboo poles by the locals. The local tribals first took this natural phenomenon to be spirits flying from the sky to terrorize them.
The famous late naturalist E. P. Gee brought this phenomenon to global attention in the 1960s. He drove to Jatinga with famed ornithologist late Salim Ali.
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.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.Though more theories continue to arise, no one has yet been able to prove the exact explanation behind this phenomenon.
2. Kodinhi — Kerala (Village of Twins)
The village entered the international spotlight when a survey done by
locals found an unusually large number of twin births in the region.
Though initial estimates put the instance of multiple births at 100
pairs, follow-up surveys found the figure to be closer to 204 pairs (408
individuals) of twins, and two sets of triplets.
Despite several studies being conducted, the exact cause of this
phenomenon is yet to be ascertained. Women from Kodinhi married off to
far away places are also known to give birth to twins.
According to doctors, they said, this phenomenon is due to chemicals
present in water in the Kodinhi area. According to locals, the oldest
known twin pair in the village was born in 1949. The number of twin
births in Kodinhi has been increasing over the years, with surveys
showing over 79 pairs of twins within the age group of 0–10 years
This phenomenon of a large number of twin births is not unique to Kodinhi, and has also been observed in the town of Igbo-Ora in Nigeria. In Igbo-Ora, research has suggested that the multiple births could be related to the eating habits of the women in the region.[8] Though no direct correlation between dietary intake and twin births has been observed, a research study carried out at the University of Lagos
Teaching Hospital has suggested that a chemical found in the Igbo-Ora
women and the peelings of a widely consumed tuber could account for the
high level of multiple births. In the case of Kodinhi, however, no such
relationship has been observed, as the residents' dietary patterns are
not known to be significantly different from the rest of Kerala.
3. Roopkund Lake — Uttarrakhand (Skeleton Lake)
It was earlier believed that the skulls were of General Zorawar Singh of
Kashmir and his men, who had got lost and died in the middle of the
Himalayan region after they got caught in bad weather while returning
from the battle of Tibet in 1841. Or it could have been an epidemic or a
suicide ritual performed near the lake.
The mystery behind the skeleton lake in Uttarakhand's Roopkund has finally been solved. Scientists have concluded that the skeletons of about 200 people
discovered near the frozen lake belonged to the people of a 9th century
Indian tribe who died due to hail storm.
The skeletons were first
found by a British forest guard in 1942. Initially, it was believed
that the skeletons were those of Japanese soldiers who had died while
crossing that route during World War II.
4. Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, California
Visitors to Death Valley have to go out of their way to visit Racetrack
Playa, which sits 1,130 metres above sea level and is a bumpy three-hour
drive from the nearest town. The researchers began studying the region
in 2011, setting up a weather station and time-lapse cameras and
dropping off rocks loaded with Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers.
The rocks were designed to start recording their position and speed as
soon as something made them move.
Racetrack Playa rocks move rarely — “maybe a few minutes out of a
million,” Lorenz says. And the two events the scientists saw, with thin
ice panes shoving the stones across a wet playa, do not necessarily
explain every instance of rocks moving there. “But this breaks the back
of the problem scientifically,” Lorenz says. “It is ice shove.”
But what forces? The current prevailing theory about
the "sailing stones" of Racetrack Playa, presented by a team of
physicists in 2011, involves ice that forms around the stones, causing
them to move and to leave a trail in their wake.
5.The Devil’s Sea
The Devil’s Sea (or Dragon’s Triangle,
take your pick of which sounds more ominous) is an area of the Pacific
Ocean as riddled with strange happenings as its Atlantic counterpart
near Bermuda. Located off the coast of Japan, it’s been the site of
countless claims of unexplained phenomena including magnetic anomalies,
inexplicable lights and objects, and of course, mysterious
disappearances. The area is even considered a danger by Japanese fishing
authorities.
One story has it that in 1952 the Japanese government sent out a
research vessel, the Kaio Maru No. 5, to investigate the mysteries of
the Devil’s Sea. Naturally, of course, the Kaio Maru No. 5 and its crew
of 31 people were never seen again. Another story tells of Kublai Khan’s
disastrous attempts to invade Japan by crossing the Devil’s Sea, losing
at least 40 000 men in the process.
The usual theories abound for what’s really going on: from aliens, to
gates to parallel universes, even to Atlantis (because why not). Some
suggest that high volcanic activity in the region is responsible for
some of the disappearances (the Kaio Maru No. 5 may have been caught in
an eruption). Our advice? Just stay out of the ocean, period.
6.Aleya Ghost -West Bengal
In
the dark of the night, the Aleya lights, also known as marsh glow
lights begin to gleam, mesmerized by its glow the fisherman begin to
follow them and often end up dead. These lights are said to be
unexplainable ghost lights which often gleam in the marshes of West Bengal.
They are reported to confuse the fisherman if they follow these lights
causing them to drown. It is the belief of the local residents that
these strange lights are that of ghosts representing fishermen who died
while fishing.
7.Tunnel No 33- Shimla
Tunnel no.33 is one of the such place allegedly the current owner of
this damp, dingy tunnel is the ghost of British Railway Engineer,
Colonel Barog, which merrily chats away with anyone who walks in with a
question.
All the tunnels were built between 1900 and 1903.The tunnel is named
after Barog, a British railway engineer. Barog, who was in charge of
this tunnel, committed the mistake of digging the tunnel from both ends
of the hill. Both ends of the tunnel could not meet due to wrong
alignment. It is said that the British authorities fined Barog Re 1 for
wasting government money in the tunnel.
The British engineer could not digest this humiliation and shot
himself in sheer desperation. After the death of Barog, Chief Engineer
H.S. Harrington was given the charge to dig a new tunnel. The new tunnel
was constructed about 1 km away from the earlier point with the
guidance of Bhalku, a local saint from Jhaja, near Chail .Work on it
started in July 1900 and completed in September 1903.
The vicinity of Pine Wood Hotel now marks the location of this site.
Though colonel Barog riding his horse is a happy spirit but there are
two other ghosts which make people avoid this area, one that of a lady
who screams and another man who can be seen asking for a lighter.
Lambi Dehar Mines-Mussooorie
The Lambi Dehar mine located in Mussoorie
proves to be a mysterious mine of death, where more than fifty thousand
workers died a tragic and painful death. The reason for their death is
said to be lung diseases caused due to improper mining. Tourists are
reported to have heard blood-curdling screams during the night and there
is an alleged rumor of a witch to have been spotted in the vicinity of
these mines. Due to its lack of population and the chill during winter,
this place is sure to give you sleepless nights and haunted days.
