Saturday, 16 November 2013

Sonitpur

Welcome to Sonitpur- a land of natural beauty, ancient monuments and rich culturalheritage. Tezpur is an important tourist destination with beautiful parks, temples and ancient monuments. The name Tezpur is derived from the Sanskrit words 'Teza' (meaning blood) and 'Pura' (meaning town or city). Legend has it that the original name of this place was 'Sonitpur' ("sonit" in Sanskrit also means blood!) but when the battle between Krishna's army and Banasura's army fought for the rescue of Aniruddha (who was the grandson of Lord Krishna, according to legend) there was so much bloodshed that the whole place was stained in red. This led to the name of the place becoming Tezpur.It is the seventh largest city of Assam after Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon and Tinsukia.


Sunday, 10 November 2013

Jatinga

Jatinga, a village on a ridge, is located in Dima Hasao district (DHD), Assam State in India. It is 330 km south of Guwahati. It is most famous for the phenomenon of birds “committing suicide”. Although the birds do not commit suicide and are actually killed, the phenomenon of suicide has spread far and wide among common people. The village is inhabited by about 2,500 Khasi-pnar tribal people and few Dimasa people.



Jatinga, famous for the phenomenon of birds "committing suicide", is located on a spur of the Haflong ridge, the head quarter of the district of North Cachar Hill. It itself is an offshoot of the main ridge of the Borail range. Here, the mist & fog lie like a veil around the beautiful face of the damsel from September to November. During these late monsoon months, mysterious behavior of birds takes place. During moonless and foggy dark nights between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., flying birds come crashing to the ground with no prior warning whatsoever. The local tribals first took this natural phenomenon to be spirits, flying from the sky to terrorize them. However, some other conditions are also necessary for the phenomenon to occur. The air must be foggy, cloudy or misty. The unusual behaviour of the birds seems to occur due to the peculiar weather conditions at Jatinga. There also appears to be a correlation between the breeding period of the birds and the Jatinga phenomenon. Studies also reveal that the flight of water birds to Jatinga may be attributed to heavy rains and floods and submergence of their natural habitat in the surrounding areas. It has been observed that there was a high congregation of birds at Jatinga during 1988 which happened to be a year of high floods.

Saturday, 9 November 2013

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park is a national park in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of the state of Assam, India. A World Heritage Site, the park hosts two-thirds of the world's Great One-horned Rhinoceroses. Kaziranga boasts the highest density of tigers among protected areas in the world and was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2006. The park is home to large breeding populations of elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer. Kaziranga is recognized as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International for conservation of avifaunal species. Compared to other protected areas in India, Kaziranga has achieved notable success in wildlife conservation. Located on the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, the park combines high species diversity and visibility.