A chicken being killed at Sabjipara, about 12km from Malda town. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Dec. 16: Only 50 chickens could be culled today in the district’s bird-flu zone as the cash to compensate poultry owners reached too late in the day.

Jahanara Begum, who brought four chickens for culling from Sahidpur village in Narhatta, said: “We are not ready to give up our chickens for nothing. We would rather sell it in the market.”

Eight teams that fanned out across 13 mouzas — having 40 villages — around noon returned to Malda town when the money did not reach Narhatta by 5.30pm.

Only one team that stayed put till 6.30pm culled 50 chickens in Sabjipara village.

All poultry within 3km of Narhatta, where bird flu was confirmed last evening, has to be culled.

District magistrate Sridhar Ghosh said it took time to encash the government’s bank draft of Rs 40 lakh, carried to Malda by Gopal Chakrabarty, deputy director of the animal resource department’s regional laboratory in Belgachhia, Calcutta. Chakrabarty has been told to monitor the culling operation.

At 6pm, Ghosh said: “The culling teams have got the cash.”

The operation would continue tomorrow.

Villagers in the Narhatta gram panchayat area, about 12km from Malda town, said many crows had been found dead. “I threw away six dead crows from near my house this morning,” said Abdul Jabbar of Budhia village.

Residents said 5,000 chickens had died over the past week. Bhopal’s High Security Animal Disease Laboratory has confirmed the presence of the avian flu virus in the area.

The animal resource department is paying Rs 20-50 for a country chicken, Rs 35-75 for a duck and Rs 10 for a quail, depending on the size of the birds. The compensation for a broiler chicken is Rs 40.

Additional district magistrate Purna Chandra Shit said: “We have set up 18 teams of 11 members each to cull over 16,000 birds in the next three days. Each team will include policemen and officials from the panchayat, health and animal resource departments.”

Sale of chickens has been banned in the vicinity of Narhatta, but local Congress MLA Krishnendu Chowdhury demanded a ban across Englishbazar block. “Otherwise, the infection is bound to spread.”