FORESTS are beautiful places that hold an air of enchantment due to their untouched and natural flora and fauna. The trees, tall and majestic, seem like they hold many secrets and the many species of wildlife add colour and awe, but there is another side to the woods — a scary and mysterious side.

One often wonders why most if not all, fairy tales either start or have the forest as an important aspect to the story. Talk about, Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and many others, all have the woods playing a very central role in the story. And then we have stories of werewolves, vampires, Bigfoot and all creatures of horror and fiction roaming the wild. The reason is quite obvious as the forest is often thick, that’s why darkness prevails even in the daytime. there are twisted branches, old and wide trunks that resemble scary human or animal face, (that is if one has a ‘wild’ imagination), as if carved by some inhuman force and yes, there are all kinds of sounds; from screeches, howls to the moans and rustling of the trees.

All this is just a natural phenomenon as far as the woods go and nature lovers spend a lot of time there for the same purpose. But then there is this forest that we shall try to go into now: the forest in Transylvania, known for its scary and strange happenings and paranormal phenomenon — a place that is said to be cursed and has earned the reputation of the spookiest forest on our planet. Transylvania, located in the land of Romania, has long been popular for its legends of Dracula and vampires. And this particular forest known as Hoia-Baciu is not a remote area but is quite popular and has many visitors.

It holds a lot of interest for researchers of the paranormal who come here often from all over to look into the mysterious and bizarre sightings, sounds and eerie occurrences. Surprisingly, the forest is not a very large one. Just one square mile of twisted, weird and ghostly wooded area that is referred to as ‘The Bermuda Triangle’ of Transylvania.

Moreover, mysterious disappearances are also a frequent occurrence here — many a wayward traveller has vanished without a trace without any clues. The locals say it is cursed and like to stay away. And no one would blame them as the name itself “Hoia-Baciu”, was given to it because of a most baffling occurrence. A sheepherder went into the forest with his flock never to return and no traces of him and the 200 sheep that followed him were ever seen or heard of again.

‘Baci’ is the Romanian word for sheepherder. It is also known to be frequented by ghosts of peasants who have been killed and believed by locals to bring memories of dark thoughts to individuals who enter it having evil intentions before taking their own lives. Many people have reported to the local authorities of falling asleep and waking up without knowing what time or place they were in. A feeling of lost time and strange headaches, nosebleeds and nausea has also been felt by many, including a strange and eerie feeling of being watched and feeling the air getting heavier for them to breathe.

One of the most interesting cases is that of a five-year-old girl who went there and disappeared. She mysteriously reappeared five years later, wandering alone without any knowledge of where she had been or what had happened during that time. Surprisingly, her clothes seemed new and not worn out as they should have been if she had been wearing the same frock for five years.

The total count of disappearances has now reached 1,000 people. Numerous reports of people who hear laughter, sudden appearances of strange faces and sounds from trees and orbs of lights caught the interest of the popular team of researchers of “Destination Truth”.

The team went there with their electromagnetic equipment and cameras to see what was going on. Evan, their team member, suddenly saw a flash of light and then was thrown across the clearing to the other side of where he was sitting. He also had strange scratches on his arm even though the shirt he was wearing had long sleeves. More so there is a most interesting circle in the clearing, which has a lot of electromagnetic activity going on according to the researchers. Nothing will grow here even though the soil samples do not show anything out of the ordinary.

Many UFO’s have also been reported hovering over the area of the forest and it is believed by UFO enthusiasts to be the reason for the disappearances — alien abduction. Is that what is going on? Who knows?

In 1968, Alexandra Sift, a biologist came here to study the unique phenomenon that was going on when she saw strange disc-shaped objects hovering over the forest and captured many images. Then on August 18 of the same year, a military technician named Emil Barnea was able to take better and clearer pictures of the same round circular flying objects.

The most recent sighting was made in 2002 when residents living on the top floor of an apartment building near the forest were able to capture a footage of 27 seconds of a cigar-shaped bright object hovering over the forest and then disappearing into the clouds.

Could this be the reason for people experiencing lost time and strange sounds etc? Is ET to blame for what is going on? Some scientists say that this could be a low frequency area where low frequency sound waves, which are not heard elsewhere, but can be heard here and are just a natural occurrence. This could be the reason for the nausea and nosebleeds and difficulty in breathing that people feel.

Is nature at work here in ways that we know nothing about?

Whatever is going on in these woods, on second thought, yours truly would like to decline any offers for a visit.

Interesting facts about trees

MORE species of plant and animal live in the rainforest than any other land habitat

The Indonesian rainforest alone is home to one fifth of all plant and animal life, yet it is disappearing at a faster rate than at any other time. There are now fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild as their habitat is destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations.

Orangutans are the largest tree-dwelling mammals

UNLIKE most other primates, they spend more time in the trees than on the ground. Their tools use is incredibly advanced; they build tree nests to sleep in, use sticks to probe logs for honey and one was even observed trying to spear fish after observing locals doing the same.

Their rainforest home is being cut down to make paper and to create space for palm oil plantations.

The world’s oldest non-clonal tree

THE world’s oldest non-clonal tree is a recently-discovered and as yet unnamed Great Basin bristlecone pine tree from the White Mountains in California.

It’s still living at an incredible 5063 years old. Old Tjikko is the oldest single-clonal tree (meaning a new trunk is grown from original roots) at an astonishing 9,550 years old. But if you thought it ended there, then you’ve never heard of Pando.

More than 25 per cent of the medicines we use originate in rainforest plants...

...Yet only one per cent of rainforest plants have been studied for medicinal properties. Every second an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is cut down meaning every day we might lose a potential cure.

The tallest tree in the world is called Hyperion

IT’S a coast redwood from California that measures an incredible 115.61m tall. The largest tree in the world by volume is a giant sequoia called General Sherman, which has a trunk 10m round and contains an estimated 1486 cubic metres of wood.