A state government scheme to give out piglets to farmers to prop up their incomes and increase the supply of pork has turned into a real porker after several of the animals died soon after being handed over to the intended beneficiaries.
Each farmer under the initiative dubbed ‘PROGRESS’, under the Rural Backyard Piggery Scheme, receives four piglets – three female and one male. Thousands have been given away but, far from allowing farmers to bring home the bacon, a few have subsequently died in the following days, leading to fears that they were sickly.
Today, Principal Secretary in the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, GHP Raju, ruled out disease, saying that it was more likely that the stress of transporting them many thousands of kilometres by road from West Bengal and Assam to Meghalaya and the change in climate that could have been too much for the young pigs’ bodies to bare.
Asked if they were the victims of inhumane transportation, Raju said, “If such was the case then we will find out. I will certainly insist that the supplier make the piglets’ journeys reasonably comfortable and not to harass them.”
He categorically ruled out disease as being a factor in their deaths.
“What happened was that these three to four-month-old piglets were brought from outside the state, like West Bengal and remote places of Assam. They had to travel for two-three days for thousands of kilometres and underwent shock and trauma because of the journey and had adjustment problems,” Raju said, adding that a mortality rate of 3 to 4 percent would be within acceptable norms.
He further assured that the beneficiaries will not face financial losses as the dead piglets will be replaced immediately, according to laid down provisions, which cover death within one month of delivery of the piglets, all of which have been ear-tagged.
