Some days ago they were willing to help the authorities clear the carcasses. Now, they themselves are clearing out. They fear an epidemic may break out any day. ``Many people are already falling ill. Nobody wants to stay,'' says Abdasa MLA Ibrahim Mundra.

This year's cyclone spared most of Kutch district, but its tail briefly whipped Abdasa and Lakhpat talukas. The maldharis (traditional cattle breeders) who live there were evacuated in time; their livestock wasn't. More than 18,000 livestock perished.

Relief workers brought 85,000 litres of diesel to burn the carcasses and excavators to dig pits for burial. But many of the soggy carcasses just wouldn't burn. And workersrarely find heaps of carcasses, which would call for the use of excavators. A carcass here, two there, another one some hundreds of metres away, some more lying along the highway -- this is the picture in this remote area. Moving the carcasses is very difficult; they are far too decomposed.

In some villages, there are over 700 carcasses lying about. At village after village, relief workers and some villagers who are still willing to help are using spade, shovel and bare hands to bury carcasses wherever they are found.

But such villagers are hard to come by now. Rajendrasinh of Mothala village, where two huge piles of dead cattle lie rotting, says village elders are asking people to leave before they fall sick. ``We have informed everybody at the mamlatdar's office and sought assistance for burying the carcasses, but nobody has approached us till now.''

Ladhabhai of Abdasa Taluka Mandal says people of his village had tried to burn the carcasses. ``But the cattle, especially the sheep which lay in waterfor a long time do not burn. And the animal husbandry officials requested us not to burn carcasses like that. But they did not give any reasons. So we left them like that. Initially, village youths helped in digging, but they too left when the stench become unbearable and more dead cattle were found,'' he says.

Maldharis are against burning the carcasses. Says Soma Devaraj, who has stayed back in Nani Ghoti village, ``It is a sin in our community to burn dead animals like that. And there are so many that we cannot bury them. So we carried the carcasses to a corner of the village and left them like that, hoping officials will do the burying. But now the stench has become so unbearable that villagers are slowly leaving and going away to other villages where they have friends and relatives.''