Lumpy skin disease scare, carcasses lying in the open in Bathinda

Tribune News Service

Sameer Singh

Bathinda, August 25

The district administration has made tall claims about elaborate arrangements to dispose of animal carcasses properly. As per the authorities, dedicated teams have been deployed to bury animal carcasses on a daily basis. But the reality is that carcasses are being thrown in the open areas. More than two dozen carcasses were thrown in an open area, near the Badal road overbridge.

Notably, The Tribune had highlighted disposing of animal carcasses in Sirhind canal. Later, the administration got these carcasses removed from canal.

Isolated instances

Our teams are working tirelessly to ensure that dead animals are lifted and buried. There could be some isolated instances wherein animals were thrown in the open. — Showkat Ahmad Parray, DC

Apart from this, the carcasses are lying unattended on the city outskirts and peripheries of some villages. Not only foul smell emanates from these carcasses, but these also pose a risk of further spreading the lumpy skin disease (LSD) that has already claimed lives of thousands of animals in the region.

Sources said left unattended for days in the open areas, even dogs feed on carcasses.

Meanwhile, the DC has already asked people to not to throw animal carcasses in the open and bury these properly, but the directions seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Municipal Corporation and Municipal Councils have been putting in all out efforts to control the menace. There are dedicated teams, which use JCB machines to lift animal carcasses and bury these at designated places. The administration also needs to ensure proper surveillance to stop this practice.

Sources said owners of cows had been acting irresponsibly. After observing that LSD-affected animal cannot produce milk, they pay Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 to community guards (rakhas) to take their animal and leave it at an isolated place beyond the limits of the respective village.

This was clear violation of the Epidemics Diseases Act and Cruelty Against Animals, the sources said. Therefore, the administration must identify owners of such animals and take strict punitive action against them, the sources added.

It is surprising that farmer unions have largely been quite inactive when it comes to raising problems encountered at the ground-level to contain the LSD.

DC Showkat Ahmad Parray said, “We are facing resistance from people in some areas with regard to burying dead animals. This issue has been sorted by shifting the burial area.”

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