Several dead crows have been sighted lying on the roads of Indira Colony in Alipurduar district's Uttar Jitpur village.
Many local residents have reported seeing hundreds of dead crows over the past few days. It has become a repeated occurrence and, up until Thursday, local residents could not make out any definite reason for the strange incident.
Officers of the state Forest department were called up to the area and they took away some of the crow carcasses as samples for testing. No conclusive reasons have come out so far. Forest department workers of East Damanpur range visited all the spots from where the incident was reported.
According to the report, at least 300 dead crows have been found lying on roadsides so far. The incident has left the locals confused and shocked. Some women, who used to regularly feed the crows, were even seen mourning.
"I heard some unnatural cawing early in the morning. I thought there must some other reason, but when I came outside I saw some crows lying dead on my house's rooftop. Some of those dead birds were facing upwards, which suggests that they fell on the ground while flying in the air," said a local resident.
"I saw that some crows were shaking unnaturally before they died. I also saw some birds whose beaks were foaming some white fluid," another resident narrated her experience.
Officers of the district Forest and Animal Resource department believe that some poisonous elements might have mixed with the waste materials at the municipality dump yard, which possibly has led to poisoning of the crows.
However, some local residents disagreed with the reason furnished by the officers. They argued that the municipality dump yard is situated far away from the locality. Some animal welfare organisations staged a demonstration in the area and demanded a probe in the matter. "We have requested the administration for a detail probe into the matter," an demonstrator said.