With bird flu being reported from many districts of West Bengal, the Centre is planning to create a “protective ring” to check the disease from spreading to the neighbouring states. This will involve a “depopulation” exercise, in which poultry will be culled in the border areas of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam that fall within a five kilometre radius of West Bengal.The move follows a high-level meeting held on Wednesday between the officials of all the five states and the departments of Health, Animal Husbandry and Agricultural Research. According to sources, the Health Ministry was in favour of conducting a vaccination exercise in the border regions of the neighbouring states. But the proposal was found to be time consuming, when the need of the hour is an immediate response.In this context, sources said, the consensus that emerged during the meeting was the creation of a “protective ring” by “depopulating” the bordering areas that fall within a five kilometre radius of West Bengal. Officials said while there was no report of outbreak in these regions, the poultry owners in the identified areas would be compensated as per the norms.Meanwhile, the Centre continues to be concerned about the bird flu situation in neighbouring Bangladesh, where the disease has spread to one more district. Now, 30 of the 64 districts in the country have reported bird flu. In January itself, Bangladesh reported about 25 outbreaks of the disease. But reports said the country, which has been struggling to contain the disease for the last one year, has culled only about 3.5 lakh birds so far.In contrast, India has culled about 25 lakh birds in West Bengal since the outbreak was confirmed in the middle of January.
