Report by Michael Rodrigues
With inputs from Yogish D Kundapur
Team Mangalorean Udupi
Pics by Janardhan Kodavoor
 
Kundapur: As many as 75 cattle died after consuming suspected toxic substance from litter and waste in Henuberu of Paduvari gram panchayat in Ottinene in the taluk.  The number of cattle deaths in the last four days has touched 75 as at Sunday evening. The rate of death of cattle had decreased on Sunday when compared to the last 3 days.

The reason is said to be ingestion of chemical waste dumped at cattle grazing grounds at Ottinene. Venkataramana H, who owned 20 cattle, has already lost 14. A few others have also developed symptoms of poisoning, which is worrying him further. The village has about 40-45 families and each possess a minimum of two to a maximum of 35 cattle heads. So far, about 15 families have lost their entire stock to this mysterious poisoning incident.

The reason is said to be ingestion of chemical waste dumped at cattle grazing grounds at Ottinene. Venkataramana H, who had 20 cattle heads, has already lost 14 and some are showing symptoms of poisoning, which is worrying him further. The village has about 40-45 families, each possessing a minimum of two to a maximum of 35 cattle. So far, about 15 families have lost their entire stock to this mysterious poisoning incident.

Speaking to Mangalorean, department of animal husbandry deputy director M T Manjunath informed that the cattle died after grazing in a land where bio-medical waste material had been dumped. The post mortem examination had been carried out. The report and viscera samples have been sent to forensic science laboratory in Bangalore to identify the cause of the death, he added.

On Sunday, Shimoga Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Biologicals director Dr Sudarshan visited Paduvari village and reviewed the situation. "The samples of the carcasses have been collected and sent to forensic labs and we can expect reports from the forensic lab in two days' time. Then only we will be in the position to analyse the cause of death of the cattle," he said .