The North Sikkim District Magistrate Raj Yadav confirmed the death of around 300 yaks due to starvation during heavy snow fall in Mukuthang and Yumthang regions since December 2018
Pic courtesy/Twitter/Abhinay Bhandari
Gangtok: Nearly 300 yaks have died due to starvation following heavy snowfall in North Sikkim district since late last year, an official has said. The North Sikkim District Magistrate Raj Yadav confirmed the death of around 300 yaks due to starvation during heavy snow fall in Mukuthang and Yumthang regions since December 2018.
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Around 300 Yaks died of starvation in Mukuthang, North Sikkim, India due to excessive snowfall @Dept_AHD @peta
— abhinay bhandari (@AbhinayBhandari) May 11, 2019
Natural or Man-Made disaster?? pic.twitter.com/qG1cJOkWWm
While carcasses of around 250 yaks were found in Mukuthang region, 50 yak carcasses were found in Yumthang recently, Yadav said on Saturday. "It appears that these dead yaks had got nothing to eat during the prolonged period of snowfall since December last year," Yadav said. The animal husbandry department's medical team has reached Mukuthang, he said.
300 Himalayan yaks died of starvation in India's northeast due to heavy snowfall https://t.co/Q7ymzR03FP #grandsolar
— Grand Solar Minimum (@grand_solar) May 11, 2019
The team carried feed and fodder for the yaks which are still alive, he said, adding, the yaks will also be examined by the medical team. The yaks belonged to 15 families in Mukuthang and 10 families in Yumthang, he said.
The affected families will get compensations on the basis of a report that is being prepared by the district administration and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, he added.
Recent animal deaths
Five stray cows lodged at a temporary shelter home in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district died allegedly of cold, an official. The deaths were reported from a shelter home in Sambhalna village which comes under the jurisdiction of Babri police station and an inquiry has been ordered, said Sub-Divisional Magistrate Prashant Kumar. The carcasses were sent for postmortem, he said.
At least 25 cows have died at a government shelter in Mathana village here due to "incessant rains and non-availability of fodder". Continuous rains led to waterlogging in the shelter. A number of cows got stuck in the swampy land and died. A few others starved to death and many have fallen sick, Kiran Bala, the village head, said. Haryana Gau Sewa Commission chairman Bhani Das Mangla and a few district administration officials visited the cow shelter to take stock. Sub-Divisional Magistrate Narinder Pal Malik asked officials to shift the sick cows to a cattle shelter in Karnal. Ashok Papneja, former president of 'Shri Krishan gaushala' that provides fodder to the government cattle shelter, said the district administration had raised a boundary wall around seven-and-a-half acres of village panchayat land and built it. "At present, there are over 600 cows in the shelter, which lacks proper facilities. There is no fodder and drinking water available for so many cows," he claimed.
The decomposed body of an adult male leopard was found in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Investigations are on into the cause of death but sources from the park said the animal might have died of old age and not poaching, as all its body parts – claws, teeth, skin - were intact. A patrolling team of the park, spotted the decomposed body of the leopard near some bushes. They informed senior officials including the park director.
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