Death of several crows in certain slum areas here led to serious concern prompting the local administration to alert the forest, veterinary and other related officials. Scores of crows were found dead in different areas including slum areas in port city in which a team of veterinary rushed to the spot to collect samples.

Since last week, dead crows are found in different areas of port city, said local people who suspect it to be due to bird flu. Veterinary department officials alerted people and warned them against handling dead crows with bare hands. They have also advised the local people including slum dwellers to bury the dead crows .

Senior officials of the animal husbandry department and Paradip Municipality too responded quickly to take preventive measures in the area. Doctors of veterinary department had ruled out any symptoms of H5N1 viral infection in the birds but panic has been gripped among the local people. Officials of veterinary department had also surveyed the area on last week and no one was found suffering from symptoms of bird flu.

The officials also added that the reason for the crows’ deaths may be the use of contaminated water or the cold wave or poisonous effluent being released from local industries. However, the report of samples will reveal the exact cause of the deaths, they added. Executive Officer, Paradip Municipality Mr Dillip Kumar Mohanty has expressed ‘ we have been given instruction to sanitary inspectors, supervisors, zamandars to dispose dead crow as Solid Waste Management Rule 2016 so Municipality has been supplied bleaching powders to these workers to dispose these dead crows.

Additional District Veterinary Officer (disease control) Mr Girija Prasad Tripathy said “we have sought the intervention of Animal Disease Research Institute (ADRI) , Fulanakhara, Cuttack to send a expert team to ascertain the cause of death”. On Saturday, we had collected samples of 57 dead crows and sent it to ADRI but reports about the cause of death has not yet received. We had been collected samples including serum, throat, and swap and environment to know the exact cause of death of crows’ he added.