# 2616
The Siliguri Corridor is the strip of Indian
territory within the red highlighted circle.
The Siliguri Corridor, or the Chicken's Neck, as it is sometimes called, is the only land-link between the 7-Sister states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura) of North Eastern India and the rest of the country.
At it's narrowest, it is but 21 kilometers wide. That's 13 miles, for the metrically challenged.
The discovery of more bird flu in West Bengal is hardly earthshaking news.
They, and Assam State to their east, have been battling outbreaks in poultry since the return of the virus in late November. And of course, Bangladesh to their south has been fighting the virus for more than a year.
But the location of this latest outbreak, near the Siliguri Corridor of West Bengal, makes this slightly more newsworthy.
All ground transportation between the 7 North Eastern states, and the remainder of India, must pass through this choke point. Additionally, there are two wildlife sanctuaries (Gorumara and Jorpokhri) in the area.
This would obviously be a bad spot for the virus to get out of hand.
Culling will begin on Sunday, and `All precautionary measures', according to the local government, will be taken to prevent the further spread of the virus.
A hat tip to Dutchy on FluTrackers for this story.
Bird flu detected in Siliguri, culling to begin tomorrow
Siliguri, Jan 03 : Bird flu has been confirmed in Patiramjote area under Matigara police station here, District Magistrate Surendra Kumar Gupta said today.
Unnatural deaths of poultry had been reported from two villages of the area following which the blood samples were sent to laboratoriesin Belgachia, Kolkata, and Bhopal.
The samples tested positive for Avian Influenza and the report was sent to the DM yesterday.
Meanwhile, the DM held a meeting with the district administration and veterinary doctors and issued instructions to begin culling operations tomorrow.
About 60,000 chickens have been targetted to be culled in three days. Veterinary teams led by Deputy Director of the Animal Husbandry department Dr Rabindranath Ghosh will undertake the culling operations.
Unnatural deaths of birds have also been reported from the hill areas. The blood samples have been sent to laboratories for testing, the results of which are awaited, the DM added.
All precautionary measures were being taken to prevent the spread of the disease to other areas. The district administration was undertaking awareness drives to educate the people about bird flu.--- UNI
