Even on the second day of the culling operations in Malda the administration had no clue as to how many birds need to be culled.

Initially the government had announced that the target was 16,500 birds in Narhata and surrounding areas in English Bazar. But on Wednesday, the cullers discovered three poultries with 21,000 birds in the Dhubri village. It has sent the district administration in a tizzy as it has confirmed that there are more affected birds in the area than the government had estimates.

“Our pervious estimate of the number of birds in the area was not accurate. It seems that there are more birds in the bird flu-hit areas. We have added four more culling teams and now 22 teams are on the field for the culling operations,” said Sridhar Ghosh, District Magistrate of Malda.

The government, meanwhile, has admitted to mismanagement in the culling process.

“Yesterday there was public resistance because the compensation money could not reach the block divisional officer (BDO). Since an actions were required, we were not able to send the money on time,” said Dilip Chakraborty, Principal Secretary, state Animal Resources Development Department (ARDD).

He also conceded the fact that on Tuesday only 154 chickens were culled in Malda.

The culling operations were disrupted on Wednesday after villagers in Shahidpara, Dhubri and Budhia resisted the drive.

Even police intervention could not resolve the issue. Villagers refused to let the culling teams enter the villages and protested against the low compensation paid for the birds.

... contd.