The Darjeeling district administration has decided to start culling in the Bijanbari-Pulbazar area, where the outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed, from Sunday. District magistrate Rajesh Pandey today held a meeting with other officials to work out the logistics of the operations. "Since it is advisable to inform people about the culling process beforehand, we have decided that the operations would start from Sunday,' said Pandey. The epicentre of the outbreak has been identified as Pulbazar, about 30km from Darjeeling town, and the culling of fowls and ducks would take place within a radius of 5km. The 200-odd employees of the animal resource development department will form 25 teams that are expected to cull about 17,000 birds in the Bijanbari, Samalbong, Kaijlay, Chungthung, Singtam, Soom and Liza Hill areas. Among these, Chungthung, Singtam, Soom and Liza Hill are tea gardens. A control room has also been set up near the Bijanbari block office. While culling operations in areas adjoining Siliguri, where bird flu was detected recently, took four days, the process here is expected to take not less than five days because of the difficulty in travelling over the hilly terrain. "Four pits will be dug where the birds will be buried. We will start paying compensation from Monday,' said Pandey. Compensation rates have been fixed at Rs 50 (for egg-laying hens), Rs 20 for chicks, Rs 75 for ducks and Rs 2 for each egg destroyed. The district administration has also decided to restrict the movement of poultry products from and into the areas that are located within a 5-10km radius of the epicentre. "We will keep a watch for 10 days. If no bird deaths are reported, we may relax the ban,' said Pandey. Parts of Sikkim that border areas like Goke and Kolbung in Bijanbari also fall within the 5-10km radius. The zone would also extend up to the Happy Valley tea garden, which borders the Darjeeling municipality area. The civic body has already banned the sale of poultry products in Darjeeling. The total expenditure of the operation, including compensation, is expected to be over Rs 25 lakh.