33 cows found dead at shelter in Rajpura, Patiala

PATIALA: Thirty-three cows died of suspected nitrate poisoning at Shri Krishan cow shelter in Rajpura town of Patiala district on Monday.
Santokh Singh Chawla, president of the cow shelter's management committee, said the matter came to light around 3pm, when staff spotted several cattle lying on the floor after consuming afternoon feed.
Soon, the management called in a team of veterinary doctors, which examined the cattle and then checked the feed that had been given to cows.According to doctors, it appeared to be a case of nitrate poisoning caused due to high urea content in the green feed given to the cows.
Punjab deputy director of animal husbandry Dr Baljit Singh Brar also reached the spot. He said a team of experts of the regional disease diagnostic centre, Jalandhar, would be reaching Rajpura on Tuesday to conduct the postmortem of the dead cattle.
Rajpura deputy superitendent of police (DSP) Manpreet Singh said a police team also reached the shelter and started an investigation. He said while veterinary experts were suspecting that the cattle died of nitrate poisoning, they were still investigating the matter to rule out the possibility of foul play. He said CCTV footage of the shelter was also being scrutinised.
Rajpura sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Rajneesh Arora confirmed that 33 cattle heads had died.
Chawla said there were 400 cattle in the shelter. Of them, 33 had died and 43 had taken ill. He said sick cattle were being treated and they were responding well to medication.