<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of In Re: Unchecked cattle sheds on the opposite side of police outpost in Bidhannagar, dispute regarding its demolition
Personnel of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) have launched full scale culling of chicks and ducks at different areas including Haticherra in West Tripura district following confirmation of the deadly avian influenza. According to the plan, the culling operation will continue for five days to eliminate more than 55,000 chicks and ducks at Haticherra and its adjacent areas. Around 55 chicks died of avian influenza at Haticherra, a tribal village of Sadar subdivision that raised alarm bell across the state.
After a fresh outbreak of avian flu in the West Tripura district of Mohanpur, 20 kilometres from Agartala, the state authorities have ordered a culling operation from today, at the same time announcing stringent measures to check import and movement of chicken and other birds to and within the state.
The Tripura Government today asked the Animal Husbandry Department to start culling operations in eight villages under west Tripura from tomorrow in wake of a fresh outbreak of bird flu. Animal Resource Department Commissioner U Venkateswarlu said that blood samples of affected chicks sent to the High Security Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Bhopal, tested positive.
Personnel of the Rapid Response Team of the Animal Resources Department have fanned out across eight gram panchayat areas of West Tripura district where culling will begin tomorrow in the wake of a fresh bird-flu attack, the second time in a month, in the State. An estimated 60,000 birds would be culled in the eight gram panchayat areas, which fall within the five-km radius of Mohanpur village samples from where had tested positive on April 21, Dr Ajoy Saha, in-charge of State laboratory of ARD, told PTI today.
Routine sampling of blood and faecal extracts from backyard poultry in Tripura has detected the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, infecting birds in a village, 130 km from the state capital Agartala. The virus was isolated from Kalachari village in Mohanpur block just before it started to cause largescale mortality among birds. The samples, that were picked up on April 16, were found to be positive with H5N1 by Bhopal's High Security Animal Disease Laboratory on April 19. However, the final notification of a new outbreak in Tripura was issued by the Centre only on Monday night.
'Developed countries in the comity of nations are looking for new galaxies in solar system while here a search is going on for water, flour, sometimes electricity and security. Punjab Chief Minister Dost Muhammad Khosa averred this while inaugurating the inaugural session of International Livestock and Poultry Congress here on Tuesday.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is now planning to launch a vigorous campaign for the rounding up of stray cattle and removal of illegal diaries to meet the Delhi High Court deadline. The MCD has written to the Home ministry and asked for a police force comprising 130 police personnel on a permanent basis till August 31, 2008.
A week after declaring Kamalpur subdivision avian flu- free zone, fresh outbreak of the deadly disease has been reported at Mohanpur and its adjacent villages in West Tripura district. The most affected areas were Kalacherra, Mantala, Bijoynagar, Mohinipur, Mohanpur, Ishanpur and Hejamar, close to Bangladesh. "The Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory confirmed the outbreak at Mohanpur where eight chicks died mysteriously recently', said U Vankeswarlu, State's principal secretary of Animal Resource Development (SRD) here on Tuesday.
Even as the Tripura Government was fighting bird flu menace, the fresh outbreak of the disease was reported from Sidhai Mohanpur area, about 25 km from here. The area falls under the Indo-Bangladesh border and incidents of death of chickens and a few other birds were being reported from the area. However, official confirmation of the dreaded avian disease was still awaited though sources in the Animal Husbandry Department have found the presence of H5N1 virus in the blood samples of the sick birds.
Government has withdrawn incentives given under various schemes for exports of skimmed milk and other dairy products, a move aimed to boost supplies in the domestic market and contain high inflation rate.
