March 13, 2020

Indian poultry farmer buries 6,000 chickens alive due to COVID-19

In a recent incident in Karnataka, India, a poultry farmer buried thousands of chickens alive to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

Amid rising global coronavirus deaths and the diseases' rapid spread in India, a variety of rumours have been doing the rounds in the country. The most rampant scare is that the virus spreads by eating meat.

Following such rumours in Karnataka which led to a drop in the demand chicken and meat in various areas, Najeer Ahmed Makandar in Belgavi loaded about 6,000 chickens on a truck, dropped them in a ditch and buried them alive.

Makandar, who lives in Gokak taluka in Nulsoor, said that due to a decline in demand, the chickens were causing him deep losses. The farmer said that earlier, his chicken used to sell for INR50-70 but ever since the coronavirus scare, prices have fallen to as low as INR5-10 per kg. He also said that raising his coop of chicken had cost him about INR6 lakh, including their food and medicine. A live chicken weight over 2 kg would only fetch him INR25.

Makandar said that it was impossible for him to maintain the chicken at such prices. He even shot a video of burying the chicken in the pit and shared it on social media to reveal the plight of poultry farmers to the world.

The video has since been going viral. Many expressed outrage against the video and the heartless killing of the birds.

Following the scare, India's poultry industry has taken a big hit and prices of chicken as well as mutton have slipped to a dismal low with even foodies substituting meat with other vegetarian or artificial substitutes such as katahal.

India is not the only country where chickens are being killed due to COVID-19, which has killed over 4,000 victims worldwide in a matter of months. In China, the epicentre of the virus, mass culling of chickens was reported earlier in the year, forcing China to consider importing chicken from the US to fulfil the protein deficiency.