Bengal grapples with bird flu

The bird flu outbreak in West Bengal seems to be showing no signs of getting contained.

The latest case of bird flu is Shaltora in Bankura and samples from there are tested positive.

Fresh samples from Bankura, Burdwan, Hooghly, Howrah, Malda, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas have been sent to Bhopal high security animal disease lab for testing.

The samples taken at random from different blocks in these districts reported the death of chickens.

On Sunday, another person Anando Haldar committed suicide at English baazaar in Malda because of falling sales of chicken.

This is the second suicide due to bird flu, the first person had committed suicide as he had taken a huge loan and the price of chickens fell drastically so Ranjit Mahara from Birbhum committed suicide.

Minister for animal resource development Anisur Rehman plans to hire personnel from Assam to expedite the culling operations. This is mainly because they can understand local language, Bengali.

The revised culling target for West Bengal is six lakhs.

The 400 rapid response teams will take part in culling operations across the State of West Bengal.

At ground zero of the outbreak in Birbhum, the chaos continues. Those carrying out culling operations admitted to NDTV that they had very little training for the job and the scale of the operation is mind-boggling.

Members of the rapid response team is having a tough time culling chickens. Many of them admit they are pretty inexperienced for the job, besides, the time in hand is too short.

''We had been given training. I have never done this before. It is not possible to cull four lakh birds in a few days with this infrastructure. I am 52-year-old and a heart patient. It is extremely difficult to carry out this culling operation,'' said Dilip Sarkar, Member, Rapid Response Team.

''I am not trained in culling. I heard that people are being hired on a casual basis from the Block Development Officer's office for the ongoing culling operation. That's why I am here. We are facing huge difficulties in culling since we have no skill for this,'' said Amir Sheikh, Member, Rapid Response Team.

These statements contradict the claims of the state government that things are under control. The tardy pace of the culling operation has drawn criticism from the Centre.

Villagers in the bird-flu affected areas aren't happy either.

''I didn't know they would come here today. We had been living in fear that they will come to my village any day. The health officials didn't give us any medicine. We are anxious to know when we will get the compensation. We are not satisfied,'' said Nishir Let, Resident, Gobindapur Village.

With absolutely no practical knowledge in culling, the members of the Rapid Response Team are a harried lot.

No wonder, the government claims of culling around four lakh birds in the next seven days in Birbhum district alone seems well and truly an uphill task.