With local assistance, officials removed 80 chicken carcasses from the water.
Nalgonda: Dead chickens dumped in the Akkampally Balancing Reservoir in Pedda Adisherlapally have sparked panic among people living in the area amid fears of a bird flu outbreak in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
The reservoir, from which the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) draws drinking water for Hyderabad and Secunderabad, became the focus of alarm after a viral social media video claimed that thousands of dead chickens had been dumped into it.
Acting on instructions from district collector Ila Tripathi Devarakonda and irrigation officials, authorities visited the site and confirmed the presence of dead chickens floating on the reservoir’s surface.
With local assistance, officials removed 80 chicken carcasses from the water. RDO Ramana Reddy later said that the viral claim of thousands of dead birds was exaggerated and urged the public not to panic. Samples from the dead chickens have been sent to a Hyderabad laboratory to determine the cause of death.
In a related development, police questioned the owner of a poultry farm in Vaddipally. He reportedly confessed that on Thursday night, he had disposed of dead chickens from his farm into the SLBC canal, which subsequently carried the carcasses into the Akkampally Balancing Reservoir.
