A pigeon lover in Dinhata lost 30 birds from his collection of over 200 in the past two days, sending officials of the animal resources development (ARD) department scurrying to his residence at Kharija-Baniadaha to collect samples. "We have culled the rest of the pigeons and burnt the boxes in which they used to spend the nights. It is surprising that such a large number of birds could still exist in the bird flu-affected zone after last January's culling across Bengal,' said Tapan Kumar Roy, the deputy director of the ARD in Cooch Behar district. Roy added that he had personally visited the house and collected samples that will be sent for bird flu tests. The owner of the pigeons, Kanai Chandra Sen, said the birds started to die yesterday. "They had convulsions and died. I lost 30 pigeons in two days,' he said. Sen said he had bought a pair of pigeons 12 years ago and the flock had swelled to nearly 250 birds. He had made special shed to keep his pigeons. "I am feeling absolutely shattered after all the birds were killed and buried and the shed burnt down,' said Sen, who has been refusing to eat since the culling. It was in mid-January that thousands of poultry birds had died in the nearby Gitaldaha area of Dinhata. Tests had proved that they had died after being affected by the H5N1 or bird flu virus. Roy said he could not fathom how such a large number of birds in one single collection escaped the mass culling that took place in the affected area. "The culling was officially declared over on February 21, but some people had hidden their birds. We are now trying to find collections of birds that had been kept as pets,' the ARD official said.