“Mopping-up operations are on. Thirty-one teams are visiting various affected areas. But one must understand that awareness level among villagers is very poor. At some places, culling teams had to wait for the entire day without any villager visiting them with their birds. I have asked the authorities to conduct a house-to-house search. But I am not sure whether that has been done,” said Das.

The animal resources development (ARD) authorities had on Monday declared the culling drive to be over after revising the target from 44,000 to 23,500. The target was scaled down, as “there were no birds in the privately-run poultries in the wake of culling operations in January, when the district was first plagued by bird flu”.

The mopping-up operation was undertaken to find out if there was any bird left in the affected areas in Englishbazar, Old Malda Town and adjoining Sahapur, an ARD official said. He added that while 21,051 birds were culled till Monday afternoon, within a three-km radius of affected areas, the ARD was hopeful of meeting the revised target by Tuesday.