Patna, Feb. 12: The sudden death of several crows in and around the state in the past few days has sent health officials and bird lovers into a tizzy.

There is an apprehension looming large that the mysterious epidemic, which claimed thousands of crows in Jharkhand recently, has arrived in Bihar, including the capital and several other regions in the state.

With the death of a few crows in the capital recently, ornithologists fear that this could be because of a bird flu-like disease that claimed thousands of crows in the neighbouring state. They are also concerned that the scavenging birds might be on the verge of extinction in the region if the disease spreads to Bihar.

Concerned over the crow deaths, Dr. Gopal Sharma, a scientist with the Zoological Survey of India, Patna, told The Telegraph: “I witnessed the first incident of unusual sickness of two crows in a wetland near Didarganj on December 22 last year. I found them dead the next day. After a few days, I witnessed deaths of three crows near Ganga ghats. Two days ago, I saw a sick crow inside my office premise and it could not survive till yesterday morning. I am apprehensive that the deaths might be related to the recent incident of mass death of crows in Jharkhand.”

He added: “Crows form an integral part of food chain and are among the very few natural scavengers left after vultures. Immediate precautionary steps should be taken by the state government departments to protect them.”

The crows first started dying mysteriously in November last year in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. This was followed by similar incidents in Ranchi, Bokaro, Khuti, Sahebganj and other districts of that state.Arvind Mishra, the state co-ordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation Network, said: “The cases of mysterious deaths of crows are being reported from everywhere in and around the state since the past few months. In Bhagalpur, several incidents of crow deaths have been reported. It is an alarming situation. Urgent steps are required to be taken to check the mortality of the crows. There could be three possible reasons behind it — feeding of crows on pesticides and rat killers among other harmful chemicals dumped by human beings, second, bird flu and the third could be likely extinction because of some mysterious reasons that led to the near extinction of vultures.”

Sanjay Kumar, the health department secretary, said: “We asked all civil surgeons to report any death of crows in groups three months ago. We have not received any report since then.”