Kingdom of Kachhar was one of the ancient lands which was ruled by ethnic Kachhari Kings for several centuries. At times they ran their country as sovereigns and at other times they were suzerainty to nearby mightier Kings and lastly the British. They have distinct culture and language different from others in the region of North Eastern India. They belong to Tibeto Burman ethnicity,Dimasa being their main language. Actually in Kachhar many ethnicities used to live having culture,language and religion,distictly different from each other. Besides Dimasa,the predominant ethnicity,Zemi Naga,Hmar,Biate,Hrongkhol,Jaintia,Khasi,Mizo,Kuki,Khelma,Sakachep and Karbi people also inhabited the area. They broadly come under Bodo population,a Sino Tibeto Burman group of people. Originally they had been animists but later the royal Kachhar family embraced Hinduism. Currently the Dimasa people are predominantly Hindus with traces of their ancient animism.Same is the case with other above-mentioned ethnicities. Since about a century Christianity also has made some inroads in the area under active support from the British colonisers.
During their heydays the Kachhari Kingdom ruled huge tracts of land covering Hilly North Kachhar and plains of south western Kachhar including at times,part of Sylhet. During that period the Kingdom had it’s capital at Khaspur,close to present day Shilchar. Though the capital is in ruins,their court deity Kanchakanti Devi is still highly revered and is placed in an elaborately constructed and organised temple. It’s not far from Shilchar airport. Devi Kanchakanti is an admixture of Devi Durga and Devi Kali. In those days the Kachharis were strong enough to fight Manipuri and Burmese kingdoms. Later the venom was steamed off and Kachhar became a part of Assam under the British. Slowly the plains of Kachhar became more and more Bengali inhabited. Shilchar became a Bengali town and the Kachharis of lesser ethnicities including Dimasas and others,named earlier, took refuge in the hills of Northern Kachhar which ultimately was declared a special autonomous district having headquarters at Haflong. The same arrangement still remains in place with a changed name of the district. It is now Dima Hasao.Haflong is the only hill station in Assam at an elevation of 2000ft above sea level. It is covered with dense lush green forests and lofty hills.
Dima Hasao is a tourist destination no doubt but it’s potentials as one is yet to be exploited or even sufficiently publicised. Apart from abundant natural beauty of a hill station,it has to offer many unexploited waterfalls,somewhat primitive indigenous lifestyles of different ethnicities,hide and seek situation changing all day long between sun,clouds,fog and smog,modern engineering marvels like maibong tunnel,the old railway engineering feats like numerous tunnels and bridges,migratory birds like Amur Falcons and many others. One can feel a peaceful coexistence of various religions like Hinduism,Islam,different denomination of Christianity and Animism.
What makes this autonomous district of Dima Hasao and it’s main center Haflong very special as a place of interest is Jatinga. It is a small settlement,mostly of Khasi people perched in a part of the Borail hills which is continuation of the Eastern Himalayas. Jatinga has long since become a place of interest and research for Ornithologists. It is said that thousands of birds of different species fly here on particular days of a certain time of the year to commit suicide. This peculiar phenomenon has been observed for many years and is being researched for about half a century from now. It is yet to be ascertained wheather the widely spread information of the bird suicide is true or a myth or rumour. There is no denying the fact that flocking in of birds of different species do occur. Let us now discuss the information gathered so far by the Arnithologists. As mentioned earlier,the inhabitants of Jatinga are mostly Khasis and some Jaintiyas from Khasia/Jaintia hills. Jatinga in their language means pathway of rain and water. Jatinga is at an altitude of 2600 ft above msl and easily accessible from Haflong. It is at a mere distance of less than 10km on the highway leading to Shilchar and Lumding. A bird watching tower has been constructed there with facilities of accomodation and food where researchers,observers,bird watchers and general enthusiastic tourists can stay and study the phenomenon. Jatinga lies between two ridges of high and lofty Borail ranges rising upto 7000ft. Between the two ridges a gorge is formed. The Borail ranges experience a high degree of rainfall. So the weather there is moist and thick fog is a common phenomenon. Windflow in the gorge is high as well.Interestingly the direction of windflow changes in the gorge every 3/4 days from North East to South West and vice versa. Every year usually in the month of October on moonless nights with dense fog when South Westerly winds passes Jatinga towards North East some unexplainable geo environmental phenomenon draws in thousands of birds from different areas towards Jatinga. On reaching the gorge they become disoriented. Any light source attracts them and they fly towards the sources at high speed. Doing so,they hit trees,hill faces or any other object that falls on their way and either die or are fatally injured. It has been revealed that some of the local poachers also contribute to the process of demise of the birds by lighting bonfires,putting nets and catching/caging the injured birds. From 1982/3 vigorous investigation and research has revealed that most of the birds are local migratory ones and not migrants from faraway countries. Most of the birds are juvenile and diurnal. They are mostly local migratory water fowls.None of these are residents of Jatinga. One more specific observation is that when the birds are disoriented they fly against the wind and the fatal bird accident occurs in the late evening between 7 and 10 pm. Amongst the types of birds that are affected we find Kingfishers,Tiger bittern,Egret and others. We don’t find any of those birds in Jatinga area at any other time of the year.
Hard work of conservationists,environmentalists,forest department of the Government,NGOs for the last 40/50 years have paid dividends and death of birds has greatly been reduced.
Taking all above discussion into consideration we may conclude that the Bird Suicide story is a myth. Also the phenomenon of congregation of so many birds from different areas in Jatinga when the necessary conditions coincide and their getting disoriented is a fact and has still to be studied and researched by the Ornithologists from around the globe. The writer recently had a tour of Haflong to find out in details about the area and specially the myth of Jatinga bird suicide. Readers are encouraged to undertake such a journey at their suitable time. Haflong,Jatinga and Dima Hasao in general are places worth a visit.
(Pic from internet)
