Chickens in Narhatta village on Tuesday. (Surajit Roy)

Malda, Dec. 23: Culling will resume in the bird flu-hit areas of Malda tomorrow, two days after the government announced the job was over.

Animal resource development director Kamala Kanta Saha, who was here today to see how well the job had been done, saw chickens hopping around, instead.

“The mop-up operation will continue for the next three months,” he said while going around Narhatta.

Saha himself culled sev- en ducks and five chickens. “I saw many birds and killed some. We don’t want the virus to stay in the area by any chance,” Saha said.

Malda district magistrate Sridhar Ghosh had yesterday said that all birds within 3km of Narhatta village had been killed.

Today, he said: “The animal resource director has told us that the mop-up has to continue. We are getting in touch with the panchayats so the operation can be smooth.”

From tomorrow, mop-up teams will go on “surprise visits” to the 19 mouzas in the Narhatta gram panchayat area.

Akram Hossain, the CPM chief of the Englishbazar panchayat samiti, blamed the district administration for the glitch. “The administration failed to make use of panchayat functionaries during the culling operation. They called the Narhatta gram panchayat pradhan to one meeting and that was it. As a result, many villagers either hid their poultry or took them away to relatives outside the culling areas.”

Hours after district magistrate Ghosh asked an offici- al on Sunday to seek political parties’ help to ensure smooth culling, the operation was declared over.

By then, many villagers had come to know that they were not entitled to any compensation for handing over their chickens and ducks during the mop-up drive. They released their birds from the coops or hid them.