Did DJ Music Prove Fatal To Over 60 Fowls In Odisha’s Balasore? 

After a young poultry farmer registered a case at Nilagiri police station in Balasore district alleging high decibel sound of DJ killed his over 60 broiler chickens, the police have launched an investigation.

And what is more, a three-member team of the Animal Husbandry department visited the village to ascertain the cause behind the death of so many fowls. 

Ranjit Parida, a native of Kandagardai village under Nilagiri police limits, has a poultry farm in the same village. There was a marriage ceremony in the village on November 21. In the night, the bridegroom was taken in a procession. The members of bridegroom’s entourage were dancing to the tunes of DJ sound system, which was playing at top pitch. 

The procession stopped near Ranjit’s farmhouse for sometime, with the music still blaring. “On finding out that the chickens got disturbed apparently due to the DJ music sound, I requested the elders in the procession to lower down the volume and move ahead. However, they were in no mood to listen to me,” alleged Ranjit. 

“The chickens could not withstand the loud music and died due to heart failure,” Ranjit further alleged, adding he had to lodge a police complaint after the organiser of the procession who had promised to compensate the loss went back on his word. 

Echoing the same, Ranjit’s father Dhirendra Parida alleged the chickens in the farm suddenly started clucking while the procession was passing close to the farm. “Ranjit rushed to the farm to see what happened and sprinkled water on them. Despite his efforts as many as 63 chickens died,” he maintained. 

The incident has since been the talk of the locality as it has never heard of chickens suffering heart attacks due to high decibel DJ sound.  The incident even attracted the attention of the Animal Husbandry department. A special three-member team of the department Wednesday visited the village to ascertain the exact cause of death of the fowls. 

The carcasses had been buried. Upon reaching the village, the officials exhumed the dead birds and collected blood samples. They also collected samples from the chickens alive in the farm. The samples will be sent to a laboratory in Bhubaneswar for test. 

As of now, all eyes are on the finding of the report as only it will help end the doubts that emerged after the poultry farmer lodged a case.  

Balasore additional district veterinary officer (ADVO) Sibaprasad Das didn’t rule out the possibility of high decibel sound causing the birds’ death. “If the decibel of a certain sound is much more than the permissible limit, it may prove fatal to human beings as well as birds. So we can’t dismiss the allegation as baseless. We expect the report will reach us within a week," Das added. 

Meanwhile, the groom’s family is learnt to have been negotiating with the farm owner to solve the case amicably.