Pesticide poisoning may have killed bisons in Devikulam

KOTTAYAM: The cause of death of four bisons inside a tea estate in Devikulam, Idukki district, on Thursday may be due to poisoning from pesticides.

This is the assumption of the vets led by Dr Nandakumar, the chief disease investigation officer of the state animal husbandry department, who conducted the postmortem as demanded by the forest department.

“Though the lesions of the animals are not good enough to arrive at any solid conclusions, the features of the intestine are suggestive of the presence of toxic substances and poison. We couldn’t see the presence of any infection or diseases,” he told DC.

Among them, one carcass was decayed and the post-mortem was conducted only on the rest.

The four were earlier buried by the forest department without conducting a post-mortem after getting the advice from a non-wildlife veterinarian that the death may be due to jaundice.

The carcasses were exhumed after a controversy erupted over the conclusion and the burial.

“The protocol that the wildlife officials should maintain in such circumstances was not followed. That includes intimating higher officials,” said a forest department official on condition of anonymity.

All the four carcasses were found in a 500-metre radius of the tea estate, which strengthens the suspicion that the pesticides sprayed there could have caused the death. Samples have been sent to the laboratory at Kakkanad for ascertaining it.