Punjab Govt claims 11,000 lumpy skin disease deaths, farmers put figure at over 1 lakh

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 30

The state government’s claims of financial loss and mortality due to Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) came under scrutiny, as dairy farmers claim that the authorities have been trying to underplay the damage caused by the deadly infection.

The state government has claimed around 11,000 head of cattle died of the LSD and 1.2 lakh cows got infected in two months since the breakout of the disease in July.

The Progressive Dairy Farmers Association (PDFA), however, puts the mortality figure at 1.25 lakh. “There are more than 12,500 villages in the state. There was hardly any village that did not report the death of cows due to the LSD,” said Daljit Singh Sadarpura, president, PDFA.

He claimed that the ground reality was different from what the government had been trying to portray.

“The situation was so bad that dairy farmers were finding it hard to dispose of the carcasses. Those who dispose of the dead cattle jacked up their prices and started charging Rs 3,000 per carcass, making it unaffordable for farmers. It was common to spot carcasses in the Sutlej in the last two months. In our life, we had never seen carcasses in rivers of Punjab,” he said.

So far, the government has not assessed the financial loss incurred on account of the disease. Going by its mortality figures, the loss suffered by dairy farmers is around Rs 100 crore.

Ask dairy farmers and they say if only dead cattle are counted, the loss would not be less than Rs 1,000 crore.

“If we take into account miscarriage suffered by the cattle and loss in milk yield, the loss will be beyond Rs 1,000 crore,” they said.

Animal Husbandry Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar could not be contacted.

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