Hyderabad: As many as 56 cows have died of poisoning in India’s Andhra Pradesh state, they fed on pesticide-laced sorghum sprouts.
The incident in Daida village under Gurazala mandal in Guntur district has sent waves of shock and dismay in the region.
Villagers woke up to a nightmarish scene when they found the carcasses of cows scattred across the fields, as far as they could see, and alerted the officials.
Another 44 cows in the herd survived, as they grazed in another field, while the 56 that fed in the cornfield where the poisonous pesticides were dumped died.
According to police, the cows were owned by one G. Lakshmaiah of Nalgonda district in Telangana and he had brought the cattle to the area for grazing.
He had let the herd of 100 cows in the open fields on Sunday night when tragedy struck.
After a postmortem of the carcasses, veterinary doctors said that it was a case of cyanide poisoning.
Assistant veterinary surgeon Shaikh Basheer said that while cattle normally have resistance to the poison, the cows in this case could not survive as the quantity of cyanide was very high.
Lakshmaiah, who was in deep shock over the tragedy, put the financial loss at more than Rs2.5 million (Dh141,319).
“I have reared the cows from my childhood. I loved them very much. They were the source of sustenance for my family,” he said appealing to the government for help.
Revenue department officials of the area prepared a report and said it would be forwarded to Telangana government with a recommendation to help the livestock breeder.
