After the confirmation of first bird flu case in the city, the UT Administration is yet to take a final call on culling of more than 1,000 migratory birds at the regulator end of Sukhna lake and Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary here.
Concerns for the spread of deadly H5N1 avian influenza is growing with the presence of more than 1000 migratory birds here, which could be the carriers of H5N1 virus.
Thousands of winged guests have been making their abode at water bodies in the city every winter for over 26 years now. The migratory birds reach Chandigarh every year by mid-November from Siberia, Central Asia, China, Afghanistan and the upper Himalayas and their stay lasts till March or April.
This time, migratory birds namely Ruddy Shelducks, White-Eyed Pochards, Common Pochards, Ferruginous Pochards, Tufted Ducks, Greylag Goose among others have arrived here.
In the wake of detection of bird flu case here, the UT Administration has intensified surveillance of these migratory birds at Sukhna lake and the Wildlife Sanctuary. “After the GoI orders, the culling of all the birds in the vicinity of Sukhna lake i.e. ducks and geese live or dead is done and they are buried as per the action plan and bio security measure set up by WHO under supervision of experts from RDDl, Jalandhar. 90 domesticated ducks were culled on Thursday while no culling orders have been issued for migratory birds at the lake,” said Prince Dhawan, Director, UT Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “The UT Forest and Wildlife Department is doing regular surveillance of migratory birds here. The forest guards have been asked to monitor the migratory birds.” “At present, there is no need to panic,” he added. Since last week, 24 ducks had died at city’s Sukhna lake.
In previous incidents of death of birds in the city, over a dozen birds had died at Sukhna after suspected bacterial poisoning in the year 2007. In January this year, two migratory birds of common pochard species had died due to food poisoning.
last year, migratory birds were seen flocking around the walkway at the Sukhna lake where the visitors often feed them with birds’ “unnatural diet” including bread crumbs, chips, roasted gram among others.
Previously from December 2012 to January 2013, eight migratory birds of species including common pochard and common coots were found dead at Sukhna lake. As per the reports received by UT Wildlife and Forest Department, the birds had died due to enlarged liver caused due to food poisoning.