40 goats die after drinking fertilizer-mixed water near Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: As many as 40 goats died after consuming urea-mixed water in a tank in a banana farm near Alandurai in Coimbatore district on Sunday.

The goats belonged to four tribal women in Kalimangalam village. They suffered a loss of Rs 5 lakh due to the deaths of the goats that were kept for sale ahead of Eid in June.

According to sources, tribal women Savithri, Vijaya, Mangalam and Kannamma owned the goats. They took the goats to the foothills of the Western Ghat for grazing, as usual. Later, they took the goats to the banana farm to give them water to drink.

The farm owner had mixed urea with water for the banana plants. All the 40 goats drank water. Soon their bellies enlarged. They started to faint one after another and died.

The tribal families did not claim compensation as the farmer had already informed them about his plan to mix urea with water for the bananas.

A local veterinary officer performed postmortems on the carcasses of the goats. The goats were later buried on a vacant land.