In These New Times

Times of India

6th November, 2012

PATNA: More than five hundred pigeons have dropped dead at a village in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district over the last four days, causing residents, some of them pigeon-keepers, to fear that something was amiss.

District officials are still to visit the site and conduct an inquiry. “We were shocked, and we cannot understand why it happened,” Subodh Kumar Singh, a keeper of pigeons who lost 250 birds in two days, said. Another pigeon keeper, Mohan Singh, said, “We need some manner of inquiry into this. Why did such a large number of pigeons drop dead in a matter of days?” Other pigeon keepers like Subhit Singh, Radhe Singh and Bhumeshwar Singh said that the government ought to investigate the deaths.

While some veterinarians suspected a bird flu or poisoning, others speculated that the deaths could have been caused because of radiation from mobile phone towers. They added that that only an investigation could get to the root of the mystery. Pigeons are valued as pets here, and there is a thriving market for them.