A slaughter Shahin could not bear

A man wearing protective gear culls birds at Hen’s Garden poultry farm in Savar, Dhaka yesterday. Photo: STAR

“It's unbearable to see the ruins. Please don't ask me to come,” the Hen's Garden owner Nazmul Huda Shahin told The Daily Star over the phone.
He was speaking as the culling workers were digging ditches on his farm in Savar. Shortly after the team of workers moved into the chicken pen and started grabbing the 2500 birds. They were then put in white sacks, still alive, and thrown unceremoniously into the ditches.
It was a sight Shahin simply did not want to face. Fifteen years of work and more than 5 lakh taka of investment have now been put in peril.
“My birds had just started laying eggs. How can I stop my heart aching,” said Shahin who along with many others in the village of Rajashan in Savar, had set up the poultry farm to manage the bread for family members.
“I owe about Tk 4.0 lakh to feed suppliers, egg-buyer. Oh no, it's a disaster,” he said.
Like Shahin, many poultry farmers are now living under the threat of bird flu that has been sweeping over country's about Tk 8,000 crore worth poultry industry since March last year.
The disease led to the destruction of about one million birds since its outbreak. On Sunday alone 58,000 birds were destroyed in just eight districts, according to official statistics.
“We are low-income people. It becomes too heavy for us to carry the burden of such big losses,” said Milon Rosario, owner of Rabi Poultry Farm at Kamlapur in Savar.
Milon, who brought day-old broiler chicks to recover last year's losses, said some 2500 birds of his farm were killed on February 23. “I incurred a loss of about Tk 60,000 last season. The extent of loss will be similar this time as well,” he said.
But Milon was not prepared to give up.. “I will start again after three months. I will take the risk,. I have to have courage.,” he said.