Krishnagar, Feb. 12: Thousands of families in the bird flu-hit blocks of Nadia run the risk of not getting the Rs 500 the government has promised as they had not reported the death of their backyard chickens. Tahamina Bibi had lost 15 chickens a fortnight before the flu was confirmed in Tehatta on January 19. She ate some and threw the rest in a field. The resident of Kanainagar, about 160km from Calcutta, is not sure if she would get the money as it will be difficult for her to prove the deaths. With five children in her home and a heart-patient husband, the 45-year-old woman is now requesting neighbours to testify before the panchayat about the chicken deaths in her house. "I'm at the mercy of my neighbours. I don't know whether they will help me. They told me a village meeting will be held soon,' she said. Like her, Sahid Sheikh, 40, of Panditpur was scared of being denied the money. "I didn't realise that recording the deaths was important. All my seven chickens died and I simply threw them in a bush outside the village,' he said. Sahid asked village elders to tell the panchayat that he was not lying about the deaths. Junior panchayat minister Bankim Ghosh said villagers who had not recorded the death of their poultry birds would have to produce witnesses. "If they had died before flu was declared, the owners would have to show where they were buried or dumped.' Over 250 villages and one municipal area have been affected by the flu in Nadia's Te- hatta, Nakashipara, Kaligunj, Krishnagar, Haringhata and Kalyani. About a lakh people have recorded chicken deaths. Animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman said it would be difficult to provide compensation to those whose poultry deaths were unrecorded. "I hope their number is small. I've asked the district magistrate to carefully screen compensation claims,' Rahman said. However, the panchayat department said the government would rely on local witnesses to provide compensation to villagers like Tahamina.