For decades, fishermen in the swamps of West Bengal, India, have reported seeing mysterious flying lights known as Aleya Ghost Lights. According to local legends, these are the souls of fishermen who got trapped in the bogs and died. As a result, the locals treat this phenomenon with a mix of reverence — because they are human souls — and fear, since the lights are considered very dangerous.
The lights often begin to follow fishermen, seemingly chasing them into the marshes on purpose. This phenomenon was considered usual, but since May 2025, the number of sightings has suddenly surged — increasing by 300%. Moreover, the lights used to appear only during the monsoon season, but this year they have persisted into the dry season.
In the last month alone, five fishermen from the Sundarbans area have gone missing shortly after reporting sightings of the flying lights. Forty-five-year-old fisherman Ratan Das believes he survived by miracle when the lights started following him:
“I was returning home when I saw three bright lights hovering right above the water. They were blue-green, unlike anything I’d ever seen. The lights started chasing me, and I got completely lost. Somehow, I made it to shore by sunrise,” he recalls.
Atmospheric physics expert Anirban Ghosh from Jadavpur University has been studying these swamp lights for over ten years and also notes something has changed this year.
“What’s especially intriguing in this year’s observations is their consistency and intensity. We receive reports of lights staying for hours instead of just a few minutes, and they exhibit behavior patterns we’ve never observed before.”
Most scientists believe the phenomenon is natural — gases rise from soil and water into the atmosphere, methane mixes with phosphines and produces the bluish lights seen above the Aleya swamps.
However, this does not explain the lights’ movement toward people and their apparent intent to follow them.
“The theory explains the basic glow, but not the coordinated motion or why they seem to respond to human presence,” says Dr. Ghosh.
The missing fishermen are either never found — as in this year — or discovered drowned in very remote areas of the swamps, far from where they were last seen. Local police take these incidents very seriously.
“We consider this a public safety issue. Whether supernatural or natural, these lights are leading people to their deaths, and we cannot ignore this reality,” said Superintendent of Police Madab Chandra Mondal, deploying extra patrols to the area.
The events have already drawn the attention of foreign paranormal researchers. Recently, Dr. Sarah Matthews, an atmospheric anomaly specialist from Oxford University, arrived in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.
“Such lights occur worldwide — from the Marfa lights in Texas to the Min Min lights in Australia. But the Aleya lights of Bengal seem to uniquely interact with humans, making them particularly fascinating from a scientific perspective,” she said.
Unfortunately, no verified photos or videos of the Aleya lights have yet been uploaded online.
