Going Viral in Kerala

Over 150,000 ducks have been culled around Kerala’s serene backwaters, but given the environmental degradation of the region, it was a tragedy waiting to happen. The state has a fever—always

Across Alappuzha district in Kerala, thousands of ducks waddle into cages with little hesitation. They are literally walking into fire, because once inside, they are going to be burned alive. An outbreak of avian flu, detected for the first time in Kerala, has turned Alappuzha into a cemetery of ducks; 157,000 have so far been killed in a massive culling operation being carried out by the state Animal Husbandry department.

On the morning of 10 November, Kuttappan, a farmer in Nehru Trophy ward of Alappuzha noticed something unusual about his flock. Around100 birds showed symptoms of sickness, refusing to eat and appearing drowsy. By afternoon, one had died. Kuttappan took the corpse and one ailing duck to the Bird Research Centre at Thiruvalla. He was told that it was difficult to diagnose the disease by examining one or two ducks. The next day, finding more birds dead in their cages, Kuttappan took ten sick ducks to the centre. While he was there, Kuttappan received a call from his son, who told him that the situation had gotten worse: 100 more ducks had died.

“A team of doctors came home the next day. They examined the ducks and prescribed a tablet which cost Rs 25. I bought a hundred tablets, the maximum that I could afford. Doctors suggested giving an injection to the rest of the ducks, which was also very expensive,” he says. Duck farming has been a traditional occupation for Kuttappan and hundreds of other farmers in Kuttanadu. He had been the owner of 25,800 ducks a month ago. Last Saturday, there was not a single duck left on his farm. Around10,000 died and the rest were culled, despite his having spent around Rs 1 lakh in a desperate attempt to save the ducks.

The samples collected were sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal. By then, cases of mass bird deaths had been reported from other areas of Kuttanadu. Panic had begun and more samples were taken and sent for tests. Confirming the worst fears, the first result from the Bhopal Institute had diagnosed the birds as infected with avian flu virus (H5N1). Among the ten tested samples collected from various locations, six turned out positive. A red alert was immediately declared across the districts from where the duck deaths had been reported. This was followed by the formation of a Rapid Action Team and a declaration by the state government that there would be a culling of all ducks in Kuttanadu. There was little time for conspiracy theories or negotiation. Culling operations started on a war footing. The farmers had to be content with whatever compensation was awarded.

Kuttanadu is the rice belt of Kerala, an abode for migratory birds and a favourite destination of tourists. It was identified as one of three vitally important biodiversity sites in the world by the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation of wetlands. The dying of birds en masse is not new to Kuttanadu, however. “It happens every year, but it is treated as the usual not-very-lethal plague commonly seen in birds. Only this year, the presence of avian flu was suspected,” says an officer engaged in culling operations.

Around ten years ago, fish had started dying in large numbers, creating panic across the state. Farmers in Kuttanadu still have fearful memories of thousands of dead fish floating across inland waters and paddy fields. Alappuzha was also the worst affected in 2011 when the state was hit by Chikungunya. When Japanese Encephalitis, a fatal mosquito-borne viral infection was detected in Kerala, Alappuzha again reported the highest number of cases. There are recurrent incidents of dengue fever as well. Every year, there is an ‘epidemic season’, mostly from the beginning of the monsoon, as the wetlands of Kuttanadu get hit by a variety of viral and bacterial infections.

“There is nothing to be surprised in this phenomenon,” says Gopakumar Mukundan, a member of Kuttanadu Lake Commission. “Environmental pollution has crossed all limits here. Around 500 tonnes of pesticide are being used every season. This is in addition to the chemical fertilisers being used. And lake water pollution by the countless number of houseboats—both registered and non- registered—adds fuel to the fire.”

No one knows the exact number of houseboats afloat on Vembanad lake here. “It is definitely more than 2,000, both registered and non-registered,” says Deepak Dayanandan an environmentalist and a native of Kumarakom. Dr CS Vijayan, former chairman of the Biodiversity Board who had submitted recommendations in 2009 to control the contamination of the lake, says that there has been a record of consistently high prevalence of coliform bacteria in the water, and that the oil leaking everyday from hundreds of houseboats makes the lake unlivable. He adds, “We suggested implementation of stringent measures to regulate houseboats. A total ban on discharge of human excreta into the backwaters should have been implemented. None of those recommendations were brought into practice.”

Kuttanadu is a waterlogged stretch of about 110,000 hectares, of which the low lying clusters of paddy fields cover an area of 50,000 hectares. According to a study conducted by Kerala’s Pollution Control Board, some 25,000 tonnes of fertiliser and 500 tonnes of highly toxic pesticides are used in the paddy fields annually, and their use is 50 to 75 per cent greater in Kuttanadu than in other regions. This has its roots in the Thanneermukkam Bund built across the Vembanad lake.It is the largest mud regulator in India and was constructed to prevent tidal action flooding salt water onto low-lying paddy lands. “Conceptually, the bund was supposed to remain closed only for three to four months in a year, and the shutters would remain open during the rest of the year,” says Gopakumar Mukundan. But what happened was the reverse. Farmers no longer had to worry about salt water tides from the sea, and the season of paddy cultivation was extended. This resulted in the bund remaining shut for more than six months a year. The water, contaminated by multiple sources, now remains within the waterlogged areas rather than getting drained out to the sea.

Kuttanadu’s wetlands lie below sea level, causing massive deposits of garbage to flow in via the rivers Manimala, Pampa and Achankovilar. According to statistics of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, the coliform bacteria count per 100 ml of water in the river Pampa at Sabarimala—a pilgrim centre visited by upto 700,000 devotees every year—is 200,000. Environmentalists say the tolerable level is 20 per 100 ml; and that in drinking water, it should be zero. “It’s well established that ecological imbalances are increasingly the cause of resurgent and emergent diseases. Hence, the development of Kuttanadu should mean the protection of the environment,” says Mukundan. Dr KG Padmakumar, former director of Kuttanadu Research Institute, who has also been part of the damage control operations, corroborates this argument. “Two-thirds of the Kuttanadu belt is water. The ecosystem is badly affected by the alarming heights of pollution. Only a long term strategy can cure the disease,” he says.

Culling operations have been carried out in seven locations in Alappuzha district, including the town; 45 to 50 teams of ten to 12 health and veterinary officers each are involved, though the chaos and confusion caused by the lack of time, experience and coordination is highly palpable. “In the beginning, the ducks were being buried, not burned. Kuttanadu is a low-lying wetland that cannot afford such a massive burial. There is water even ten feet below the ground level. They started burning [the dead birds] only after the people started resisting,” says Jayammaa, councillor of Alappuzha municipality.

The Rapid Action Team is wary of the media. When we reach Mukkail, a village in Ambalappuzha North Panchayat, the team is preparing to cull 30,000 ducks in the locality. They ask us to keep away, citing an order from the Collector not to allow media persons to the sites. “The reason is simple. The Government does not want the people to know what actually is happening in the bird flu hit areas,” says Dr TM Thomas Issac, Alappuzha’s MLA. “Alappuzha does not have sufficient firewood. Hence thousands of ducks remain half burned. They continue burying ducks in places where firewood is not available. Nobody is capable of giving any assurance that this will not lead to an outbreak of some other epidemic.”

Alappuzha has started stinking of death. Around 25,000 ducks have been buried in Nedumudi Panchayat. A journey through the villages of Kainakari, Ambalappuzha, Nedumudi and Chennithala brings the foul smell of burning flesh and nauseating sights of pyres on which hundreds of dead ducks remain half cremated. “The remains of the birds flow into the inland waters and paddy fields. The villagers use the same water for bathing and washing clothes because they do not have any other option,” says Gopakumar.

Incidentally, Kerala has often come under sharp attack by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for not doing enough to effectively manage food waste. The rampant dumping of waste in public places, especially carcasses and poultry litter, has posed all manner of health hazards in the country’s most literate state. Poor waste processing and badly outdated land-filling techniques have, over the past decade, repeatedly caused major health scourges.

Government officials carrying out the culling operations cite only one reason for burying the dead ducks. “We follow WHO guidelines that suggest [we] bury the birds,” says a veterinary officer leading a team. However, the WHO’s guidelines are for drylands, and it has not issued any guidelines on containing bird flu in wetlands.

Thankfully, the virus has only spread from bird to bird so far—though H5N1 can theoretically mutate or recombine with a human influenza variant to form a strain that could be transmitted easily from human to human.

AlappuzhaCulling operationFlu VirusH5N1