Why reasons of bird flu & botulism not deciphered so far, ask wildlife experts

As the bird flu spreads its tentacles in Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh Himachal Pradesh and Kerala experts have raised concerns over why the reasons for bird flu or avian influenza and animal botulism or any other disease infecting the nations wildlife in recent years have not been deciphered so farAround 20000 aquatic birds perished in November 2019 in and around Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan The Rajasthan High Court at that time took suomotu cognisance and formed a committee to ensure that such a tragedy does not occur againIn such a context the court should ask the central government to set up a panel to decipher the reason behind such cases of bird flu influenza botulism or any other disease which is infecting Indias wild birds in recent years Despite mortality happening in states which is a cause of grave concern to state governments the reasons behind such infections are not yet known which is a worrying factor said environmentalist Harsh VardhanIANS contacted many experts in this regard and all of them summarised that it is high time that such diseases in wildlife species are ascertained and diagnosed and the curative aspect taken upMany of them also argued that there are few agencies in the country which are capable of diagnosing such diseases The less said the better about the autopsy which is the only option left to veterinary surgeonsAll samples of dead birds from Rajasthan are being sent to Bhopal for further testing as there are no such labs in the desert stateThe experts hinted that NorthSouth migration can also be subjected to injecting virus in birds causing embarrassment to southern countriesMost of the migratory birds to India fly NorthSouth in October and go back SouthNorth in March The mortalities have been noticed on the NS pathway ie reaching India the experts saidIt is being speculated whether a neighbouring hostile country sprayed birds that bred there and were on the way to reach India Objective to cause a virus among other birds and thereby spread it to humans A tactic of a country to upset another country not friendly now and its economy being a threat to its neighbour said a wildlife expert on condition of anonymityHe added that the Ministry of Environment has the jurisdiction to tackle such issues However it has no expertise It rests on the states work So Ministry of Animal Husbandry is the lone agency to handle such issues but it mostly deals with domestic livestock not directly supervising the wild species So who is finally responsible for wild species The Forest Department which has no wherewithal to deal with such crises he askedA total of 522 birds have died in Rajasthan in the last one week since the outbreak of bird flu out of which 471 were crows while others include herons and baya weaversMohanlal Meena Chief Wildlife Warden Jaipur told IANS Animal Husbandry is mostly responsible in dealing with such issues However we are working as joint teams with the Veterinary Department district administration and Forest Department to contain the infection Our teams are tracking all such cases without delay and disposing off them with caution he addedAnother senior official who monitored the Sambhar crises told IANS No lessons have been learnt from the Sambhar tragedy The reason behind the birds death was botulism which happens via poisoned foodmeat or by injecting poison Disposing their bodies was a challenge then and it is a challenge now too when bird flu has hit many parts of the stateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever