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Odisha poultry farm owner alleges loud DJ music killed 63 of his birds
“I lost around 180 kg of chicken due to the loud sound as the birds probably died of shock,” said the man
The owner of a poultry farm in Odisha’s Balasore district has alleged that at least 60 broiler chickens in his farm died due to loud music coming from a bridegroom party that came to his village.
Ranjit Parida of Kandagaradi village under Nilagiri police station area of Balasore district on Monday filed an FIR alleging that 63 broiler chickens in his farm died due to loud music played by the bridegroom party during the marriage procession on Sunday night.
“At about 11 pm on Sunday, the bridegroom party from the nearby village of Maitapur arrived at my village with the DJ music playing loudly. The bridegroom party also blasted high-intensity firecrackers. As the sound was too much to bear for the 2000 broiler chickens on my farm, I requested people in the marriage procession to lower the volume. However, they all seemed to be drunk and verbally abused me. The terrified chickens in my farm started running around in fear and an hour later I found 63 chickens dead,” said Parida.
The poultry farmer said when he asked the family of the bride the next morning about the death of poultry birds, they refused to compensate.
“I lost around 180 kg of chicken due to the loud sound as the birds probably died of shock,” said Parida. Nilagiri police station inspector-in-charge Droupadi Das said she has called both Parida and his neighbour for a discussion on the complaint.
Professor Suryakanta Mishra, a noted zoology professor who had authored a book on animal behaviour, said loud noise does increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in humans as well as birds. “Chickens are governed by a circadian rhythm that is controlled by the natural light/dark cycle of day and night. As such, chickens mostly rest and are inactive at night, especially when it is dark. Sudden excitement or stress due to loud DJ music can disrupt their biological clock leading to death,” said Mishra.
In 2019, the Allahabad High Court issued a blanket ban on disc jockeys (DJs) in Uttar Pradesh, calling them a “serious threat to human health”. “Even if they are operated at the minimum level of the sound it is beyond permissible limits under the Schedule of the Rules, 2000. A DJ is made up of several amplifiers and the joint sound emitted by them is more than a thousand decibels,” the HC had said, calling DJs a “serious threat to human health, particularly children, senior citizens and patients admitted in the hospitals.”
