At least 200 parrots succumbed to suspected food poisoning in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district, said officials on Friday.
The carcasses of the birds were found over the last four days near an aqueduct bridge on the bank of River Narmada in the Badwah area, they said.
District wildlife warden, Tony Sharma, said some parrots were alive during rescue operations, but the toxicity of the food that they had consumed was so high, that the birds died shortly after.
The deaths triggered panic in the area after a suspected bird flu scare, but veterinary examinations found no trace of the infection on the post-mortem. Viscera samples from the birds were sent to Jabalpur for further examination, officials said.
However, forest department officials, who suspect it to be a case of food poisoning or improper diet, have banned feeding near the aqueduct bridge and deployed staff at the site for strict enforcement.
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Teams from the veterinary and forest departments, as well as the wildlife wing, have been monitoring the area for the past four days.
Dr. Manisha Chauhan, a veterinarian, who conducted the post-mortems, said symptoms of food poisoning were found in the parrots, with veterinary extension officer, Dr. Suresh Baghel, adding that rice and small pebbles were found in their stomachs.
“People often unknowingly feed birds food that proves fatal to their digestive systems,” Dr. Manisha said.
Dr. Baghel did not rule out pesticide exposure from feeding in sprayed fields and water from the Narmada River as contributing factors in the birds’ deaths.
“Prima facie, the deaths seem to be linked to improper feeding,” he said, adding that visitors to the bridge who feed cooked or leftover food to the birds may have proved fatal.
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