A chicken perches on a tree in a Hooghly village to escape a culling team. Picture by Debabrota Biswas

Jan. 25: Bengal is battening down the hatches to keep bird flu from spreading to Calcutta but animal resource development minister Anisur Rahman admitted the challenge when he drew a parallel with cattle smuggling on the border.

“Cattle smuggling is rampant on the border despite BSF presence. Similarly, if chickens from bird flu-affected zones are smuggled into Calcutta, we cannot help it. However, all preventive steps have been taken,” the minister said.

Rahman reeled off a series of measures including police checks on road and railway entry points and monitoring of city markets, which officials said were the “most vulnerable areas” from where the virus can spread.

However, a check run by The Telegraph found little evidence of platform or highway vigil although the disease has reached Hooghly district, just across the river from the city’s northern fringes.

Rahman said chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had asked home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray to ensure the city was not supplied with chickens from the affected districts, which now number nine.

“However, chickens from organised poultry firms that are not affected by flu will be allowed to enter Calcutta’s markets,’’ the minister said.

The government has cancelled all leave at Calcutta’s state-run medical colleges and set up 10-bed isolation wards at Nil Ratan Sircar and R.G. Kar although no human patients have been reported.

“Even Alipore zoo authorities have been asked to try and keep the lake free from migratory birds. There are, however, still chances of diseased birds entering,” a senior animal resource development (ARD) official said.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) have been asked to watch railway platforms in the affected districts. “Chickens can be smuggled into Calcutta by trains and ferries. Those bringing the birds will not use the roads manned by the police,” the official said.

Joint ARD and Calcutta Municipal Corporation teams will visit the city’s 200-odd markets. There are no backyard poultry farms in the city, which makes monitoring easier.

No GRP personnel, however, could be seen today at Dumurdaha and Kuntighat railway stations in the Howrah-Katwa section that fall in the bird-flu zone. Nor were police teams in sight at the city’s main entry points on Delhi Road, Durgapur Expressway and Kona Expressway. There were no checks on Vidyasagar Setu and Howrah Bridge.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, however, saw no reason for panic. “Not a single case has been detected in Calcutta. Our officials are monitoring the markets every day,” he said.