Food poisoning not ruled out as possible cause of ducks’ death

The increasing deaths of domestic ducks at the lake are becoming a matter of concern for the UT administration. On Saturday, three more ducks were also found unconscious at the lake, while five birds were found dead on Wednesday and seven on Thursday.

With two more bodies of ducks recovered at the Sukhna Lake on Saturday, total number of deaths has reached to 14.

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The increasing deaths of domestic ducks at the lake are becoming a matter of concern for the UT administration. On Saturday, three more ducks were also found unconscious at the lake, while five birds were found dead on Wednesday and seven on Thursday.

The sources in the administration claim the exact reason will become known only after the post-mortem report. Giving details, Santosh Kumar, UT chief wildlife warden, said, “The ducks that have been found dead are not migratory birds but the domestic ones. There are around 100 ducks at the lake out of which 14 have died. The preliminary medical examination indicates that they may have died due to old age or cold weather conditions.”

The sources say, “Food poisoning has not been ruled out as visitors keep on feeding ducks which might have result in their death.” Even though the UT administration claims visitors have been asked not to feed birds and a warning has also been issued in this regard, they continue to feed them.

The dead birds have been sent for the examination to a veterinary laboratory in Jalandhar— the northern region diagnostic laboratory for the examination of birds—to ascertain the exact reason behind the sudden death. In 2007, over a dozen birds had died at the Sukhna Lake due to bacterial poisoning