Fifty-two pigeons have died after eating wheat seed mixed with poison in Natore Sadar upazila. The incident happened on the afternoon of 5 December in Chandrakola village of Tebaria union.

Raju Islam of Chandrakola village said he has 40 pigeons, and four or five other villagers keep more than 200 between them. As on any other day, the birds went out to the fields to feed on Monday morning.

He said the pigeons usually return home soon after midday. When they had not returned by Monday afternoon, the owners began searching the fields and found 52 pigeons lying dead around Babu Islam's wheat field.

Tarek Kabiraj of the same village had 32 pigeons, several of which also died. Tarek said Babu Islam had mixed poison into the wheat seed he sowed to protect it from birds, without telling anyone in the village. "That's why our pigeons died," he said.

Babu Islam said that he and several other villagers had mixed some powder into their wheat seed to protect it from birds, because in some parts of his field the seed had not germinated. He mixed the powder into about three kilograms of seed, and said the powder should not kill pigeons. He could not say what powder it was.

Tebaria union parishad chairman Omar Faruk said he went to Chandrakola village on Tuesday morning after hearing of the incident. Those involved live in the same village and are related, so the landowner has apologised, the two sides have embraced and been reconciled, and it has been agreed that compensation will be paid.

Chairman Faruk said the village elders will decide the amount of compensation. The poison used, called Naim, is supplied by the sugar mill authorities to kill sugarcane pests, he said, and how it reached retail shops should be investigated.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.