When nine out West Bengal state’s 19 districts were declared on Wednesday to be in the grip of a bird flu outbreak, it belied Chief Minister Buddhadeb Battacharya’s assertions, earlier in the week, that the spread of the deadly H5N1 virus was well under control. Seven days after the outbreak was first reported in the Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts, the virus had spread through half of West Bengal which has a population of 80 million people. Culling operations were reported to be sluggish, amidst concerns voiced for the socio-economic impact on farmers and impoverished villagers who count backyard poultry among their valuables.

“There was a delay of nearly a week’s time for notices to be sent to us, but now things have been put on track,” union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday. At least 100,000 birds had died of the virus before help was sought from the centre and from other states to handle culling operations and possible spread to human beings.

Officials in West Bengal admit that the outbreak could have been handled better. “We have a total of nine districts in the grip of bird flu. With northern Cooch Behar and southern Hooghly districts added on Wednesday, we can say that the virus has wreaked havoc through the length and breadth of the state,” state animal resources development minister Anisur Rahman said.

West Bengal must cull over 2.1 million birds, mostly backyard poultry, in the next few days if the virus is to be stopped from spreading beyond the nine districts that include Murshidabad, Burdwan, Nadia, Malda and Bankura. But estimates released officially say that only 300,000 birds have been slaughtered so far. Even that figure is being challenged by journalists and others who toured the affected districts. Officials in Malda, about 350 km from Kolkata, confirmed on Wednesday that culling could not even start in the district because of lack of staff and infrastructure and the absence of a pre-culling awareness campaign in the villages.

Reports from other districts said the efforts were ham-handed and marred by various factors in a state where 72 per cent of the 80 million people live in rural areas and raise their poultry as part of the family. It does not help that West Bengal shares a long and porous border with Bangladesh where there have been several outbreaks already. Authorities have now ordered the border sealed with paramilitary troops charged with ensuring that birds are not smuggled in.

Nepal, which lies to the north of West Bengal, has banned the import of poultry from India. While the federal government has openly criticised West Bengal for failing to act in a timely manner, provincial authorities speak of practical difficulties. “To convince people to hand over

backyard poultry in the villages is not easy,” Rahman said. In India, an outbreak of bird flu was first reported in the Nandurbar district of western Maharashtra in 2006.

The only good news is that, so far, human beings have been spared. West Bengal’s health minister Surya Kanta Misra said all five samples taken from humans, suspected to be

infected, have come back from top government laboratories showing negative for avian influenza. “There is no cause for panic,”

he said. — IPS