Unusually cold weather in Sri Lanka’s northern province caused by the Mandous cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal has led to the death of hundreds of farm animals with hundreds more falling sick.
An official said a drop in temperature below 20 degrees Celsius combined with strong winds triggered the death of nearly 350 cattle and 180 goats in four districts of the province.
Jaffna District Kilinochchi District Mullaitivu District Vavuniya District
Cattle deaths – 49 Sick – 17 Cattle deaths – 168 Sick – 159 Cattle deaths – 120 Sick – 159 Cattle deaths – 21 Sick – 17
Goat deaths – 58 Sick – 50 Goat deaths – 6 Sick – 3 Goat deaths – 42 Sick – Goat deaths – 85 Sick –
Deptaretment of Animal Production & Health (DAPH), Provincial Director, Dr S Vaseeharan attributed the incident to poor livestock management practices, which he said has been killing farming animals for years, long before the arrival of the cyclone.
“These kinds of tragedies occur every other year due to the extreme hot climatic conditions, floods and so on. These animals have no insurance cover since they are raised to be slaughtered,” Vaseeharan said.
The official said livestock in these districts have no safeguard against such natural disasters. They’re free grazing animals with no permanent shelter to protect them from environmental hazards.
“There are also 300- 400 in a herd. These animals are owned by farmers and they are sent astray to graze on available land. That’s the extent of their management system,” said Vaseeharan.
A majority of the animals, he said, are for meat production and not for dairy and therefore the farmers are not inclined to invest or care about their well-being.
The small farms too have being affected and Vaseeharan said prevention is actually impossible and the number of deaths may rise.
However, the latest updates from the Department of Meteorology said cyclone Mandous was expected to gradually weaken into a deep depression by Saturday morning and into a depression by noon.