Health workers gather birds for culling at a village near Agartala on Monday. (PTI)

Agartala, April 29: The restive poultry farmers of Bishalgarh subdivision have demanded culling of birds inside Sipahijala wildlife sanctuary which prompted the authorities to shut the zoo inside the preserve to visitors.

They also demanded better compensation for the birds slaughtered in their farms. “They argued that if their apparently healthy and unaffected birds were to be culled merely on the basis of suspicion, the birds within the sanctuary should also be subjected to culling,” said Ashudeb Das, sub-divisional officer, Bishalgarh.

He added that the culling teams had a tough time convincing the people.

Fullscale culling operations continued for the third successive day in five gaon panchayats of Bishalgarh subdivision.

However, the director of the zoo at the sanctuary, Ajit Bhowmik, ruled out any culling within the sanctuary, describing it as “unnecessary”.

“We have 21 species of captive birds, some of which are exceedingly valuable and are very well looked after with medicine and food. It is well known that poultry chickens are the most vulnerable to the bird flu virus, besides ducks and pigeons, but we do not have them within our sanctuary,” said Bhowmik.

He said after being informed of the outbreak of bird flu and upcoming culling operations in the sub-division, he had spoken to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) in New Delhi and was given detailed instructions to follow as preventive measures against the avian flu.

Culling teams operations have encountered minor protests from owners of the birds.

“They protested against the amount of compensation —Rs 40 for full-grown poultry chickens, Rs 50 for desi varieties and Rs 70 for ducks — but we could not go beyond the official rates and convinced them,” said Asim Roy Barman, director of the animal resource development department.

Roy Barman said three days of culling in eight gaon panchayat areas of Mohanpur and Hezamara blocks till Sunday had led to the slaughter of 20,795 affected birds.

An amount of Rs 7,46,207 has been paid as compensation to owners of culled chickens, ducks and pigeons.

Roy Barman added that his department was worried over the possible escalation of bird flu in different parts of the state and 107 samples from all over the state have been sent to Bhopal.