The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has
ordered poultry farms across the state to dispose of bird droppings
every 48 hours. This comes as a relief for thousands of villagers living
near poultry farms.
The state has 594 layer poultry farms (for eggs) and 2,655 small broiler farms (for meat). The layer poultry farms have bird strength between 50,000 and 3 lakh. About 20 farms in this category have more than 5 lakh birds. And broiler farms house between 2,000 and 10,000 birds.
The board has set a deadline of December 31 to comply with the order. After that, no poultry farm will be allowed to operate.
The PPCB’s order follows an in-house study on the mechanism to manage
bird droppings.
The study was taken up in August after taking cognisance
of complaints from villagers, mainly from Barnala, Sangrur, Patiala,
Mohali, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur districts, about the problems of stench,
flies and germs in poultry farms.
The study found that “thin manure contains ammonia which causes foul odour. The piled-up waste promotes breeding of houseflies, which are a public nuisance and a major health hazard”.
