NAROWAL: The livestock department has vaccinated 617,075 animals, including 424,588 of those affected by the floods, to protect them from infectious diseases.

Narowal Deputy Commissioner Syed Hassan Raza told Dawn the flood in the Ravi River and rainwater drains of Auj, Baen, Basantar and Dek caused extensive damage to Narowal district.

“As many as 424,588 animals were affected by the floods in the three tehsils of Shakargarh, Zafarwal and Narowal. But only 18 animals died due to floods in the district that had currently a total of 617075 animals.”

Mr Raza said the livestock department had started vaccination of animals on the flood warning of the PDMA and it vaccinated 100pc of the animals.

Now after the flood, he added, there was a risk of outbreak of diseases including epidemic fever, skin diseases, leprosy, blood parasites, liver diseases and plant poisoning in animals. Keeping the situation in view, he said, booster doses had been given to 33,825 animals in the flood-affected areas to protect them from diseases.

“The department is monitoring diseases on a daily basis. It ha senough supply of medicines for animals. The district administration is providing fodder to 25,510 farmers in the flood-affected areas.”

He said 22,500 hens died as a poultry farm was submerged in floodwaters while hundreds of feed bags and valuable medicines were also lost. Mian Tahir Mahmood had a poultry business at village Reb Plot. The floodwaters engulfed the village and the chicken farm having 12,500 chickens was submerged with floodwater and only 2,500 chickens could be rescued and shifted to a safe place with the help of the locals.

“As many as 10,000 chickens drowned in the flood while hundreds of feed bags were also lost, causing a loss of Rs13.5m.”

In the same village, 6,000 chickens and feed bags worth Rs3.2m of Ayub Poultry Farm were also lost. 3,000 chickens and feed bags worth Rs1.8m of Khizr Broiler Farm and 3,500 chickens and feed bags worth Rs2.1m of Ali Hamza Broiler Farm were also lost.

Due to the flood, poultry farm businesses in the village of only Reb Plot suffered a loss of Rs20.6m.

DC Syed Hassan Raza said teams from revenue and other departments were present in the field to assess the damages in the flood-affected areas. He claimed that financial assistance would be provided to the flood victims as per the government policy.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2025