dead birds
Nearly 100 cattle egrets (birds) and nine crows were found dead under mysterious circumstances at two different sites in Aligarh's Sasnigate and AMU campus in UP on Thursday morning.

Following the reports, the university directed their provosts to stop serving chicken in dinning halls amid fears of bird flu.

Talking to TOI, district magistrate CB Singh said that after receiving information, forest officials rushed to the spot and sent one of the dead birds for post-mortem and buried the remaining. He said the exact cause of death will be known from the autopsy report.

Aligarh's forest divisional director Satish Kumar told TOI that preliminary investigations revealed that the cattle egrets either consumed some pesticides or they were suffering from some disease. But the exact cause will be known by Friday after receiving the PM report.

He said, one of the birds, was alive when they reached there and was sent for the treatment. He told TOI that the birds were nesting in the area due to lot of trees.

A local residents of Bhojpura, said that they are scared after seeing such a large number of birds dead. He said, "We want the administration to get check up done, as around 200 had died".

Spokesperson of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Rahat Abrar, said following this incident the varsity administration has decided to stop consumption of chicken in the campus.

"All provosts of 25 dining halls have been directed not to use chicken in the dining hall till the situation improves," he said.