Residents of the area where a marriage has been thrown into uncertainty by the flu cooked chicken at a picnic on Sunday.“We know the chickens should have been culled but we also know that cooked chicken is germ-free. It is also very cheap now. We’ve got it for Rs 40 a kilo,” said Dilruba Begum, as she cooked a curry on the bank of the Jalangi. (Amit Biswas)

Balarampur (Nadia), Jan. 20: A wedding has been put on hold in Nadia because the bride’s family rears chicken.

Sabir Ali’s parents let the girl’s family know their decision after poultry deaths were reported from Tehatta block last week.

The bird flu outbreak was confirmed yesterday.

Teenager Roshnara Khatoon (name changed), who said she had been in love with the man from Murshidabad since they met at a common friend’s place a year ago, was to get married on January 24.

Her mother said: “The groom’s family told us to get rid of the birds and stop poultry farming. They said the marriage cannot take place now as the entire block has been infected by the virus.”

The widow had reared 10 chickens in the backyard of her house in Balarampur, Tehatta, where culling would begin tomorrow.

The condition set by the groom’s family — stop keeping poultry at home — “is difficult for us to accept”, the woman said.

“How can we shut down the poultry? We earn money by selling eggs and they are an essential part of our diet.”

Her two sons — Rahimul, who has a small garments business, and Manirul, who is unemployed —left for Rejinagar today to convince the groom’s family about going ahead with the marriage.

Roshnara said: “We were deeply in love and our families had accepted our relationship. I find it difficult to believe that our marriage is breaking up because of bird flu.”

The secretary of a local mosque, about 170km from Calcutta, said the flu was “posing many problems for us”.

“The groom’s side had first asked the bride’s family not to cook chicken at the reception dinner,” he added.

The family had invited many villagers to the reception on Thursday.

District magistrate .S. Meena said teams will go around Tehatta tomorrow, collecting birds from households for culling.