Dead pigeons scare Jharkhand villages

A team of the animal husbandry department reached the affected villages and buried the dead pigeons in a deep hole outside the village.

Despite the culling of thousands of chickens, the bird flu scare shows no sign of abating in districts of the Santhal Pargana division in Jharkhand. In the past two days, a large number of pigeons have died in the Chilra and Patharkani villages in Pathargama block of Godda district, around 339km away from the state capital Ranchi. The pigeon deaths — these were birds owned by some villagers — have made people in the surrounding villages fearful, as they are afraid of the virus spreading to other domestic birds.

Despite the culling of thousands of chickens, the bird flu scare shows no sign of abating in districts of the Santhal Pargana division in Jharkhand.(Photo by Gurminder Singh/Hindustan Times) (HT Photo)

Pathargama block development officer (BDO) Rudra Pratap told the media that a doctor of the animal husbandry department, Dr Ashif Ahmed, had been sent to affected villages to collect samples. The samples would be sent to a Bhopal laboratory for tests; if the samples tested positive for birds flu, preventive action would be initiated, he added.

A team of the animal husbandry department reached the affected villages and buried the dead pigeons in a deep hole outside the village. The officials said that there was no report of any other bird deaths (chicken or crow) from any other village.

Villagers said that 16 pigeons of Ramesh Marandi were found dead in Patharkani village on Sunday, while 17 pigeons of Kapil Bhagat and Basuki Bhagat had died on Saturday. Villagers in surrounding areas now fear losing their chickens and pigeons to the virus. “Deaths of pigeons have been occurring in the village for the past one week. When a large number of them died on Sunday, we informed officials,” said Kapil Bhagat.

Chilra panchayat chief (mukhiya) Mahadeo Tudu said that since the bird flu virus was found in the nearby Meherma block of Godda district, villagers feared that the infection was spreading. So, he added, the district administration was requested to initiate confidence-building steps for villagers until the sample test report arrived.

The bird flu virus has so been found in the Godda and Deoghar districts of Santhal Pargana division.