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.

Ultimately, the culling teams had to return in the evening without doing any work.

“We know that villagers in certain pockets are protesting against the culling operations. We have, therefore, decided to rope in various agencies like Al-Amin Mission, UNICEF and madarsas to make the villagers aware of the problem,,” said Chakraborty.

“We have also published awareness posters, which we will be distribute among the villagers,” he added.

According to sources in the district administration, unnatural deaths of many birds were reported on Wednesday from three gram panchayats in Ratua, nearly 20 km from Narhata, where culling is underway at present.

According to reports, around 900 domestic birds have died in Chandmoni I and II and Baharal.