A Santhal dance at the Bandhna festival, during which chickens are sacrificed. (Gour Sharma)

Mitradanga, Feb. 3: Prasad Tudu, a wiry Santhal living in this tribal hamlet of Birbhum, shudders at the thought of culling teams marching in.

Chickens are never killed. They are sacrificed before his God.

“Bonga (god) will desert us if we hand over our chickens to the sarkari babus. We can never do it,” Prasad said, his jaw set firmly.

A rapid response team also returned from neighbouring Burrabagan, in the face of resistance from tribals.

The area is 300 meters from Benodepur in Bolpur block, where bird flu has been confirmed. Rapid response teams were supposed to cull all live birds within 5km of Benodepur.

The culling team that went to the area, about 200km from Calcutta, returned after killing nine chickens in villages surrounding Mitradanga, where there was no tribal population.

“How can we let anyone kill our chickens without us having offered them to our Bonga? We need chickens to sacrifice to our God. We need them for our Dol festival two months later. Chickens to us is God’s feed,” said Biren Hansda of Bunchidanga in Illambazar block, which is also in the culling zone.

Biren explained that it was a centuries-old tradition of the Santhals to sacrifice chickens during pujas and parabs (festivals).

“We also sacrifice chickens after child births and deaths and at weddings.”

Chickens are much more popular than goats and pigs as sacrificial offering as they come cheap, said Nepal Tudu, 65, of neighbouring Battola village. “Very few of us can afford to offer pigs and goats to God.”

Bolpur subdivisional officer Utpal Biswas said teams would search for live birds in the villages and kill them in a mop-up operation after culling was officially completed.

“No compensation will be paid for poultry birds culled during the mop-up,” the SDO said.