Amid the growing coronavirus scare and the accompanying rumours, a poultry farmer in Karnataka buried thousands of chickens alive to avoid the spread of the contagious disease.

A Twitter user by the name of Niranjan Kaggere (@nkaggere) shared a shocking video of the incident with the caption, "A dejected farmer Nazeer Makandar from Lolasoora village in Gokak, Belagavi, decided to bury chickens from his poultry farm, following steep fall in price due to #CoronavirusOutbreak."

In the video, one can see the farmer burying the chickens alive in a pit. He buried around 6,000 live chickens after the drop in prices. Apparently, the farmer was getting Rs 8-10 for the chickens, whereas the cost for looking after them was Rs 50-60. Therefore, the owner used a JCB to dig up a hole and dumped the live chickens in them.

As the video went viral, Twitterati flooded social media with their reactions. A user wrote, "Cruel. He could have just left the chickens out. Why did he have to bury them alive." Another wrote, "Instead of doing this, he could have distributed them for free."

"This is madness. We tend to use nature's givings and when the time comes, we show no mercy in destroying them. At least these birds could have been given some anaesthetics to kill them off. Burying something alive is not a solution to any problem," read one post.

A user remarked, "End of humanity. You can't just bury them alive on the basis of a rumour."

Why bury!? Just leave them Abrar_ampard (@Lampard_Abrar) March 10, 2020

Cruel. He could have just left the chicken out. Why did he have to bury them alive. PatriotIndian (@Patriot86589254) March 10, 2020

He could have given it to poor and needy for free?????????? Riddhi Sengupta (@sengupta_riddhi) March 10, 2020

End of humanity. You can't just bury them alive on the basis of a rumour. Roshni Singha (@bhtdikkathai) March 11, 2020

Madness...isn't it? Mahesh Bhat (@maheshbhat) March 10, 2020

Instead, he could have distributed it for free. Vasanth Nadiger (@Vasanthnadiger2) March 10, 2020

The poultry industry in different parts of the country has been hit hard amid rumours that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted through consumption of chicken, the prices of which have fallen considerably as a result.

Last month, the Union Ministry of Animal Husbandry had clarified that chicken may be considered safe as no report has so far confirmed its involvement in the coronavirus outbreak.

(with inputs from Nolan Pinto)

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