CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, August 8: As more than 100 pigs have died in Ranchi since July due to suspected African swine flu, various pork sellers across the district that set up their shops in multiple ‘bazaars’ in various locations are worried about their business.
Namkum Bazaar, Shalimar Bazaar and Satranji Bazaar are some of the most famous places in Ranchi where pork is sold twice a week. Thousands of people across the city are its buyers. However, now many sellers are worried as people have stopped buying pork since the news of flu broke out in Ranchi.
Raja Nayak, one of the pork sellers who set up his shop at Satranji Bazaar said that his business has been affected since the news of the flu broke.
“On average, there used to be 30-40 customers per day and now it has come down to 8-10. Our business has been affected a lot. This is my only source of income. I don’t know how I will manage for the coming days,” he said.
Similarly, many sellers at Namkum Bazaar are also worried that they might have to shift to some alternative option in order to earn money.
“I have been setting up shop for the last 10 years in Namkum. The crowd over here loves to buy pork. But in the last few weeks, the sale has gone down for everyone. It is really worrying everyone,” said one of the sellers in Namkum Bazaar.
“Only Ranchi district has so far been associated with pig deaths. We have issued an advisory to all districts to take precautionary steps and follow COVID-19 type protocol in case of a similar occurrence,” State director of animal husbandry Shashi Prakash Jha earlier told PTI.
There have already been roughly 70 pig deaths at the government-run pig breeding farm in Kanke. On the farm, there are approximately 1100 pigs, including 760 that are fully grown.
Anil Kumar, an animal husbandry officer in Ranchi, claimed that in addition to McCluskieganj and Khalari localities, the Chanho area had also seen about 40 pig deaths.
