Chir Batti, Chhir Batti or Cheer batti (Ghost light) is a yet unexplained strange dancing light phenomena occurring on dark nights reported from the Banni grasslands, its seasonal marshy wetlands[1] and the adjoining desert of the marshy salt flats of the Rann of Kutch[2] near Indo-Pak border in Kutch district, Gujarat State, India.
Local villagers have been seeing these sometimes hovering, sometimes flying balls of lights since time immemorial, and call it Chir Batti in their Kutchhi-Sindhi language, with Chir meaning ghost and Batti meaning light[1].
A team of local and US ornithologists confirmed observing this strange phenomena in great detail[1] which is already well known to local village folk[1] and soldiers of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) who patrol day and night the adjoining Rann of Kutch international border area of India with Pakistan.
As per eye witnesses this phenomena refers to a strange light as bright as a mercury lamp that changes its color to blue and sometimes red and resembles a moving ball of fire, which sometime stops or moves as fast as an arrow. It is not just one light, but could appear at several places. The light has also been observed to becomes two from one. As per local folklore these lights have been a part of life of Banni grasslands and the adjoining Rann of Kutch for centuries, but unfortunately as not well known beyond the immediate area this phenomena has not yet been studied for scientific explanations and people continue calling these strange light occurrences as ghost lights. It is reported 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 and no record exists of them having ever harmed any one so far except that if followed in the middle of a dark night one could be misled from the road and lose their way in thorny jungles or desert of the salt flats of the Rann.[1]
Witnesses claim that these lights at times appear to be playing hide and seek, even if one decided not to follow them, they can at times creep up on one[1].
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