Talk:Chir Batti

Hello sir i m vijay kapdi from kutchh bhun i m a youtuber ane i m going to shoot this event in my YouTube channel so if i was found sothing strong avidance than i can tell u what is that thing and what is chir batti its my unique try to capture chir batti video soon. As possible.

Reproducing comment of eye witness Mr. Jugal Kishor Tiwari, an ornithologist and ecologist
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CHER BATTI The Strange lights of Banni grasslands in Kutch, Gujarat

I am writing an interesting but a real phenomenon about which many of you have not heard or seen.

I was in Banni grasslands with my friends and family yesterday evening. We were there to see many birds of prey, eagles and Buzzards which come to over winter in Banni. We were very lucky to have seen some 150 eagles (Tawny and Steppe mostly but a few Long-legged Buzzards ), roosting on ground at night (on the dry bed of Chhari-Dhand) a desert wetland. As this site is so dear to me that I am registered for my doctoral program on the wintering ecology of Common Cranes in this area. I had spent six years 1990-1995 with BNHS as a Scientist.

THIS IS NOT ALL TO TALK ABOUT IN THIS MAIL. The most exciting phenomenon of the Banni is the Ghost lights as the locals called it (CHER BATTI), some strange light phenomenon which people see in the dark nights at around 8 pm and the whole night near Kiro hill (an extinct volcano and fossil site). We were there and the lights appeared at 8 pm. I have shown the light phenomenon to many people. The light is a moving ball of brightness, it stops it moves and it moves as fast as an arrow. It is not one, yester day it was atleast at 7 places. The light becomes two from one and it can be taking you away in grassland where there are no roads.

Beleive me, the light came straight on us (7 people) we were thrilled and spell bound (some of us frightened), I tried taking picture and recording it on Video (nothing comes) I do not say it is ghost and it will not come on the film.

I might have seen this more than 100 times. But it was a spectacular phenomenon yesterday. Let me tell you the light changes its colour too Blue, red and bright like mercury. The Villageres say it is an age old phenomenon. No body was harmed so far according to the old villagers. many truck drivers and Farm yard manure collectors start following the lights in the dark nights and are carried away in thorn packed jungles.

We came to know about the strange lights when we first came to study birds in Banni in 1990. Our bird trappers would go in the wetland area at night to trap birds for banding for BNHS project. I was a field scientist. In the night the light will distract our trappers and our vehicle as a result we had lost our tracks so many times.

The buffalo herders of Fulay, Chhari, Tal, Layari, Moti-Choor, Vazira, Birkur, Dhora, Luna, Baghadia villages are aware of this phenomenon and are not surprised to hear our experiences. To me it is not a bioluminiscence, phosphorous, methane gas balls or star reflection. It is not a flying saucer, I am also not saying it is a ghost. What it is should be found out.

Do not take this as a story, it is a real life phenomenon, I can show this to the world with a challenge. I was thinking of inviting the Discovery or National Geographic Society to register this on film and show this to the world. I know many a times they do not take such things serious. I hope some one can send this to them.

Yes one more thing, you feel like the lights are playing with you, when you decide leaving the area they follow you and come till the edge of Fulay village. We had experienced this yester day and many times.

Any one who wnat to see this and help me to explore the truth is welcome to visit us.

Jugal Tiwari Ex. Scientist BNHS and ex. Ecologist Seawater Foundation USA

Centre for Desert and Ocean po-Moti-Virani, Taluka-Nakhtrana, Kutch, Gujarat, India 370665

Posted: Fri Nov 4, 2005 10:01 am by jugal tiwari ; Message #4172 from the Archives of Yahoo Group on: ButterflyIndia · Butterflies in Indian Region

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Source: CHER BATTI The Strange lights of Banni grasslands in Kutch, Gujarat; Nov 4, 2005; Posted by eyewitness in the news Indian ornithologist Mr. Jugal K Tiwari on Yahoo Group on ButterflyIndia · Butterflies in Indian Region


 * Profile of ornithologist and Ecologist Mr. Jugal Tiwati who has reported this strange light phenomena to Indian Express Newspaper

mrigthrishna (talk) 23:53, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Copy of full article from Indian Express Newspaper for archival purposes
" Home> Ahmedabad> Page One

PAGE ONE

Ghost lights that dance on Banni grasslands when it’s very dark

By D V Maheshwari; Tuesday, August 28, 2007; Ahmedabad Newsline; Indian Express Newspaper

Bhuj, August 27: The deserts of the Rann of Kutch, which melt into the arid Banni grasslands hold many unexplained mysteries apart from the varied species of birds. Spread across 3,846 sq km, this grassland is witness to a strange light phenomenon on any dark night.

Locals who have been seeing it since time immemorial, call it Chhir Batti in their Kutchhi-Sindhi language, with Chhir meaning ghost and Batti meaning light.

Jugal Kishor Tiwari, an ornithologist of Moti-Virani village, who was earlier employed as a BHNS scientist and ecologist for Seawater Foundation of USA, has seen these strange lights several times. “I first came to know about these during the study of birds in Banni in 1990. We were there to trap some birds for a BNHS project and were distracted by these lights,” said Tiwari.

“The light, which is as bright as a mercury lamp changes its colour to blue and sometimes red. It is like a moving ball of fire, which sometime stops or moves as fast as an arrow. On November 5, 2005 my team found these lights at seven places. We have shown this phenomenon to several experts including well-known American ornithologist Bill Clark. He was amazed and had no explanation,” Tiwari said. He, however, said that he had not been able to capture this phenomenon on video or a film roll.

“No, they are not ghosts as is believed by people in this area. It can be anything. Strangely enough, though this has been a part of life of Banni grasslands for centuries together, no one has been able to come up with a suitable explanation. As long as there is no sound explanation, people would assume these to be ghost lights,” he said.

He said that these lights can only be seen after 8 pm on dark nights and are always 2-feet above the ground to about 8- to 10-feet in the air.

Tiwari said the lights had not harmed any one so far except that if one followed them one could be misled from the road into the thorny jungles.

“It’s like the lights playing hide and seek. Even if you decide not to follow them, they can creep up on you. It’s something like the light following you. This is not only mine but has been every body else’s experience here,” he said.

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SOURCE: Ghost lights that dance on Banni grasslands when it’s very dark; by D V Maheshwari; August 28, 2007; The Indian Express Newspaper

mrigthrishna (talk) 17:43, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

INDIA TODAY MAGAZINE
"I read somewhere that on dark nights there are strange lights that dance on the Rann. The locals call them cheer batti or ghost lights. It’s a phenomenon widely documented but not explained."

SOURCE: Stark beauty (Rann of Kutch); Bharati Motwani; September 23, 2008; India Today Magazine, Cached: Page 2 of 3 page article with these search terms highlighted: cheer batti ghost lights rann kutch, Cached: Complete View - 3 page article seen as a single page

mrigthrishna (talk) 22:39, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Photographer confirms seeing the Ghost lights of Banni Grasslands and records it in his digital photography related blog post
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GRK Trip Report Dec 2009

Hello all, just back from a birding / photography trip to the paradise called the Greater Rann of Kutch. It was a trip of 4 days and with some lovely sightings ….a few key summary and highlights.

· Got to see the Ghost lights of Banni – Char Bathi as the locals call it

· A Macqueens bustard sighting

· A Juvenile barbaric falcon sighting and images

· A late evening / night sighting of two pallid scops owl

· A male Stoliczka’s Bushchat displaying and puff dancing

· A desert cat seen again – seeing this in the second visit to this part of the world. Spotted and photographed this last year too.

Day 1 (Dec 7th 2009):

I started from namma Bengaluru on the 7th morning and arrived into Bhuj by the Kingfisher airlines. Vaibhav was there in the airport to pick me up. After having some tea (a shop recommended by Vaibhav bhai) enroute headed straight to CEDO left my bags, quickly assembled my tripod and set off to Banni accompanied by Vaibhav bhai. En-route stopped at a spot for the Buntings and after one hour found / clicked none then proceeded further to stop at a small pond. We scanned the pond and found a pair of Hoopoe, black winged stilt and parakeet. Made a few images of these and there was about 5 shovellers attempting to land in the pond….quickly ran for some cover and waited behind an acacia but every time the group would come close to the pond for landing abort and fly away, finally one landed but the other end of the pond….sun had already set by now and we went to Banni, we scanned the area for some owl and reached Khiero where we waited for a few minutes and 'we then saw the char bathi’s appearing around the horizon. These are small balls of fire that keep burning and are clearly distinguishable from beams of light. The beam has its light spread but this did not. There were atleast three different colors of these glowing objects – sometimes red, sometimes blue and sometimes white.'

'After wondering and admiring how / why this happens we left the area to return home. Just as we were planning to return to CEDO we saw one ghost light appear fairly close to us at about 300 meters and was clearly visible. It was fairly bright ball of light that moved from right to left of us and was visible for over 4 minutes before disappearing. It did not rise above beyond a height and at the same time it was not at the same height – it would gain and drop height but very little. We saw some vehicles too at the same time that were in Banni but clearly on comparison there was no vehicular sound around the ghost light when it appeared near us. If someone was running with a torch a bright light then there would be dispersal of beams of light but this was not seen by us. This gave a lot of thoughts and points to ponder over on and we moved ahead to return back to CEDO had dinner and then discussed the occurrence with Jugal who has seen this many times and have written about this in various forums and media.'

......... continued.....

Posted by admin

http://www.digitalfrescos.com/blog/?p=44

SOURCE: GRK Trip Report Dec 2009

......Another page on the same website is signed by:

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Cheers Alwan.S Posted by admin

SOURCE: http://www.digitalfrescos.com/blog/?p=39&cpage=1#comment-16

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Above posted for archival record of sightings.

mrigthrishna (talk) 07:58, 1 January 2010 (UTC) =New kind of "Earthly" bolt==

Quite some time ago, I read that they discovered a new kind of electric bolts in India which are found close to ground level. If someone can relate ChirBatti and this thing, I think the para-normality is solved.

--Qasrani (talk) 18:42, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Archived Eye Witness Account from the blog: The Banni Grasslands of Kutch by Swati Sani
Blog: The Banni Grasslands of Kutch by Swati Sani

After a hard day of fossil collection and bird watching, while we were heading back one day, we encountered a strange phenomenon. I had read about it, was curious too but had no expectations of witnessing the Chir Batti of Banni Grasslands. Four distinct pear shaped lights, one yellow, three blue, were twinkling at a distance of about 100 feet. They seem to vanish for some time, and then reappeared. Tarique said they could be night mirages, Aasim had his own theory of the gases trapped getting ignited by static electricity – but none of us was sure of what it was. The villagers simply call them Chir batti or Ghost lights. “These have not caused any harm so far and are a common sight in the Banni grasslands” Mohammad said.

Mohammad, our guide on the first day, who belongs to Mutva community of Kutch, has spent many a years with BNHS doing fieldwork in Banni and ringing birds. A local, he has quiet a lot of knowledge about the region, birds and bird behavior.

Source: Blog: The Banni Grasslands of Kutch by Swati Sani. Accessed 20 September 2012.

mrigthrishna (talk) 02:43, 21 September 2012 (UTC)